


North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark

by ViperxCobra15



Series: North Wind [1]
Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diamond Dogs are just one tribe out of four, Gen, Nocturne - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 42,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28630035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViperxCobra15/pseuds/ViperxCobra15
Summary: Just because she was a pegasus didn't mean she wanted to be like all the others of her tribe especially when it came to earning her cutie mark. But just because you want a cutie mark in a certain field didn't mean you get the cutie mark you wanted.
Series: North Wind [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098077
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

_How did this happen?_

“Move pony pup,”

_Wasn’t this supposed to be a world of magic where everypony is nice to one another?_

The binding on her wings chafed and her entire body ached as she forced it past the limit to pull the mining cart.

_She was the sister of the Pegasus who would grow up to be the Element of Loyalty and one of the fastest flyers in Equestria._  
Her hoof met a sharp rock and she bit back the whimper at the sudden pain and the wet feeling of blood, the thought of the wound getting disinfected pushed away at the warning growl in her direction for pausing.

_She was born in a city known for its weather control and founded by one of the Equestrian Founders in an event now celebrated as Hearth’s Warming._

The dust filled air made her want to cough even as she came to the marked spot and picked up the pickaxe to dig at the wall.

_Was this an alternate version of Equestria? Or is this something the show could not have touched upon?_  
The back of her jaw ached, and she knew that some of her teeth would fall out from the abuse they’ve endured (good thing they were baby teeth.)

_Why had she been reincarnated in this world, in the Loyalty Bearer’s family, who cast her aside for something she could not control?_  
A purple gem fell to the ground and detaching the cart from her back, she picked it and several others that had fallen out and placed them with the scant number of gems she had in the small cart they had given her.

_She wished she hadn’t been born as a Pegasus, in fact, she wished that she hadn’t been reborn at all._  
They threw a shovel in her direction and she obediently picked it up and started digging, ignoring the rotted wood that was in her mouth. No doubt she would have to pick out splinters later.

_Her sister had seen that that stallion bind her wings and did nothing, her parents did nothing as he assured them she would see the error of her ways by the end of summer._  
She spent thirty minutes digging a hole before they barked at her to dig another one, laughing as she stumbled over her aching hooves to obey them.

_Rainbow Dash ignored her pleading look, the filly touching her left ear which looked as if something had cut the tip off, causing North to flinch back as realization dawned that maybe, her sister hadn’t forgiven her after all._  
Her wings were begging to be released from their confines, and she could hear the canines behind her contemplating tearing them off so she could fly to the ceiling to get more gems.

_The betrayal, the hurt tore up inside of her as she watched her family turn away from her to go back inside the house, her uncle’s hoof around her shoulders feeling heavy and forbidding._  
Even if they took the bindings off, she won’t fly, because she had sworn never to use her wings again. She would never feel the air beneath her wings, but that was fine, because she would never fly, not with her Pegasus magic.

_“Still think you do not deserve punishment?” he continued on before she could defend herself, “It is abominations like you that make it difficult for us Pegasus to uphold peace in Equestria, best to have those accursed wings restrained lest you do something worse’_  
_‘It had been an accident!’ she wanted to tell him, tell anybody, she hadn’t meant to hurt anyone!_  
She’s been here for three weeks with no sign of him returning, and she’s pretty sure the bindings were not supposed to be on this long.

_The canine that met them at the mine looked nothing like the Diamond Dogs she remembered in the show, in fact, he resembled more of a Rottweiler and the gem on his collar wasn’t a Diamond but a dark red ruby._  
Apparently Diamond Dogs were just one kind of bipedal sentient canine around and inside Equestria, just like how ponies had three (known) tribes, the Jewel Dogs had four: Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires, and Emeralds. Her uncle had placed her with the Ruby Dogs of whom apparently, he held a debt with.  
_“We do not do pup labor,” the Ruby Dog, who she later learned was Pico, had not been impressed upon her uncle revealing his reason for being there._

She didn’t know what he did to persuade the canine, having been pushed into the mine lift where another Ruby dog was giving her glances that she did not like.   
_Pico entered the elevator and had a conversation with the other canine she couldn’t understand but that seemed to displease them both. The Ruby dog marched out of the mine lift and they left her alone with Pico who didn’t spare her a glance as he took them down._  
Her second hole bore fruits of her labor and she was able to fill her mine cart up to the bare minimum before she was urged to hurry up.

_He gave her the smallest cart and stared at her bound wings with an unreadable expression but said nothing as he led her to an alcove where other Ruby dogs were having a lunch break, albeit a messy one._  
“Take cart to Cas, then report to out duty,” she gave a small grimace but obeyed, approaching the Ruby Dog with a close resemblance to a German Shepherd.  
“I met the mark,” he gave her a disinterested glance, inspecting her cart and waving his paw for her to leave it with the others.

_“This Wind Scar’s niece, North Wind, she works under Cas to pay off Scar’s debts as mine worker,” he said this in a warning tone as some of the canines had given her a look upon learning who she was related to._  
She passed other ponies working in the mines, some not even looking at her, though one paused in his work to leer at her, only for a Ruby Dog to smack him back into working.

_None of the Ruby Dogs were happy that she was there, apparently their desires for debts paid off did not extend to filly-pups doing the work._  
She kept going till she reached a room where a horrible stench was visible as a Ruby Dog came out. He bared his teeth at her in a smug sneer, wiping his paws on the packed dirt beneath them.  
Ignoring him, she entered the ‘out’ room, one of many in this long cavern, and picking up the only shovel, she went to work.  
All the pony workers were relegated to clean up duty in these rooms, none of the canines wanted to do it as it was a chore reserved for the lowest on the food chain.  
In this case it was the ponies.  
Despite three weeks of doing this, the smell still hit her, at least she had stopped throwing up from the smell despite it being so close to her muzzle.  
She really needed to learn how to use the shovel without it being in her mouth, but despite it being five years since she was reborn, there were parts of her body that she was still getting used to.  
It was embarrassing, but it took her quite a bit to figure out how to ‘grasp’ objects with her hooves, and her mouth writing was still a mess (she didn’t care that she was only five, it still wasn’t an excuse.)

The only upside she could find to this chore was that certain ponies found their ‘interest’ in her gone in favor of turning away (the canines didn’t express interest in her despite that harrowing first day.) But she had the sinking feeling that it was not going to deter them forever.

One of the lone female canines appeared and grabbed her around the middle as soon as she left the out room.  
“Come, time for bath,” they weren’t rough with handling her, but they weren’t all that gentle either.  
A river ran through parts of the mine, but they didn’t directly bathe in it for health reason, instead several workers were put to work gathering water into large buckets over a fire and a trough.   
One was supposed to wipe off as much as possible with the trough before going into the hot water, and this was only allowed once a week for each group.  
The bindings around her midriff were worn down and stained, unable to be washed at all.  
“Still not off?” the Ruby female gave her bindings a frown, clearly displeased, “Much work need done on ceiling, you only flying pony, no magic ponies allowed,” apparently unicorns had to pay off their debt through other means as their debtors did not have the means to stop them from wielding magic against them.  
North didn’t bother telling her that she couldn’t fly, even if she dreaded the moment the bindings did come off. But flying was out of the question, no matter how much it angered them.

The Ruby canine, whose name still hadn’t been given, led North to the mess hall which was empty except at the back where various workers were setting up dinner. A dark blue griffin was preparing dead chickens, an Earth pony was stirring a large pot of soup, and to her dismay, the pony that had leered at her was working on the dough for the rolls. A large Ruby Dog with a black lab resemblance grinding up some sort of rock, looking up when she was dropped in front of her.  
“Eat then cook,” a bowl of undetermined soup was placed in front of her along with a chunk of bread, no doubt leftovers from the day before.

Being a picky eater in her previous life, soup was one of the main foods she did not touch at all.  
In this life up till the mines she managed to avoid eating soup with her family (if only because they barely cook it except for ‘fancy’ dinners.) Now she had no choice but to eat it, otherwise her malnutrition would be worse than it is becoming with the lack of necessary vitamins.  
Making quick work of the soup (and trying not to think of the ingredients) and bread, she joined the black lab canine who placed several strange mushrooms in front of her along with a knife.  
“Cut mushrooms for pony soup when done eating,” there was a sneer in the canine’s voice at ‘pony soup’ and North quickly finished her food, not wanting to make them impatient and began cutting.   
She spent the next hour cutting all sorts of mushrooms, some that had a slight greenish glow to and others that had strange shapes. The sole griffin in the mine was right next to her, which she didn't mind, even if the scars on his back and the missing right wing was a bit scary. He never glared or glowered at her, rather treated her indifferently which she preferred to the interest of her 'fellow' ponies. The smell of boiling chicken wasn't all that appetizing but vague memories of what it tasted like made her hungry all the more and curse the fact she was born as a herbivore, who knows what chicken would do to her system.

"Stop," the command had all of them dropping their cooking utensils, "Leave, supper time for us," they all left, the griffin actually walking alongside her which had the added benefit of keeping that one stallion from following them. She stopped at the room they had given her, apart from all the others, and turned to her companion.  
"Thank-you," he tilted his head, amber eyes focusing on her,  
"Keeping yourself bound is not the best way to deal with your fears," with that he disappeared into his own alcove and she went into hers, pondering at his words.

Early the next morning she stared at the ceiling, mind swirling as she tried to think of anything, _anything_ to get out of this.  
Could she get away with telling them she’s not old enough to fly? No, that won’t work, they’ll make her fly anyway.  
Say she’s crippled? No, she has both wings and they wouldn’t buy that either.  
Maybe outright tell them that she doesn’t want to use her Pegasus magic at all? Even the thought of their reactions made her shiver.  
If only she could get a bit of cloud into the mines and climb on top of it to get to the top, but there’s no way she’d be able to get a piece of the clouds to do it.  
Some sort of ladder? No, waste of resources.  
Trying not to panic visibly and wake any Ruby dogs within hearing distance, she turned on her oil lamp, grabbed a broom and started sweeping.  
Normally all the pony workers were supposed to sleep in the same room, but instead due to her ‘special status’ as Wind Scar’s niece; they had placed her in a really, old storage room filled with scrolls and dust all over. By the end of this three months sentence they wanted the room spick and span to make way for whatever. Reading the scrolls proved useless as they were in Ruby dog language, which apparently not even the Ruby dogs could read. Reading or writing hadn’t exactly been a top priority for Ruby Dogs when they were more focused on production.  
So, all North could do was sweep till the floor was the clear rock it was supposed to be, and to make sure there were no creatures hiding in any holes. She also practiced sweeping bipedal, ignoring the pain in her back in favor of a more familiar position.  
Her blue wings itched to fly, and she flinched as the worn bindings around them starting giving, when before it they felt like a corset a size too small around her barrel.   
‘No’ she told her wings, she was not going to fly, she was _never_ going to fly. As if in protest, her wings twitched and with terror she watched the magic binding spark as cracks appeared.  
“No, no," that cursed magic was trying to get out and she knew that she will not be able to control it.  
No matter what she did the next few days trying to keep her wings calm didn't work and more and more cracks appeared in the binds.  
Something the others noticed, the canines even going so far as to put down notes of her doing flying practice.   
Unfortunately or not, that earth pony or Corn Husker as he's called, his obsession with her ended up changing everything. The last of her binding was hanging by a thread and she was hiding in the cavern trying to focus on sweeping, sweat on her brow as she felt the whirlpool in her grow.  
“So, enjoying your special treatment,” the voice made her freeze mid-sweep as she turned to Corn Husker who was giving her a smug grin, “No more avoiding me brat,” she tried to swing the broom at him but he smacked it away, his Earth Pony strength splitting it in two. Backpedaling, she tried to find the nearest exit, but he was blocking it with his body.  
“You know, before you came here, I was thinking about your dear uncle and how I owe him so much,” his hoof reached in to caress her face and she shivered, “After all, he’s the reason I got trapped down here, why my own family disowned me, why I have to bow down to these mutts,” his face turned into a malicious sneer, his eyes flashing with disgust. His hoof came to her neck and she cringed as it slid down to the spot between her feathers.  
“Then I saw you, the resemblance so uncanny, and thought, well he isn’t here, but somepony like him is, and you are such an adorable little filly,” she had known he had unsavory intentions towards her, but it was one thing knowing it, and another thing for it to actually happen.  
‘Get away, get away’ she mentally chanted this as his other hoof came towards her, she turned to run but his hoof snagged on the cloth and with a frustrated grunt he ripped it away, ignoring her warnings and pleas.  
"Oh no you don't," North cried out as he smacked her across the room, crashing against the wall and staring up at him with fright as he approached her once more.   
“ **Get away from me!”** she screamed, her wings snapping forward, what came next was the very thing she feared would happen.  
He went down with barely a shout and she closed her eyes, running out of there, running to get away from _what she had just done._  
“Hey what’s going on!” the voice made her run faster, because what were they going to do to her when they see the result of her losing control.   
She had to get out, she had to get out!

The magic in her wings swirled around and wind swept through the mines, startling her chasers and she begged it not to hurt anyone, but at the moment she knew it wouldn't listen to her. Her hooves beat against the ground as she picked up speed, eyes closed against the dust the wind was picking up but ears alert.  
"She's heading towards pit!" the shout made her gulp but she didn't stop, if memory serves her right, there was a blocked off cavern that none of the other dogs went into, if she could just squeeze in there. A growl sounded to her left and with a yelp she jumped, wind surrounding her as her hooves touched wood before she was jumping again. The magic was building up around her again and she realized too late that she was over a very large pit.  
'Oh' she fell.


	2. Filly-Pup in Mines

Shouting was the first thing to hit his ears and his muzzle scrunched as one by one his senses turned back on. The familiar smells of mining came to him along with the sweet, nauseating smell of ponies, which confused and infuriated him because they were not supposed to be in Jewel Dog territory. He could also feel wind, which was strange as he knew they had imprisoned him in the deepest part of the mine where wind was impossible. Then the significance of this hit him and his eyes shot open, realizing that, yes, this was not another hallucination form his long imprisonment, he was actually free.  
It did not take long for his eyes to adjust and he looked at the accursed chains responsible for his long sleep, chaining him like a pet around this stupid collar. Chains that were supposed to keep him asleep for another three hundred years, created by the greatest magic users on the planet, never to be broken.   
Had been cut

He blinked several times, looking closer and realizing that yes, these six foot thick chains had a clean cut right through them, cutting off the connection to whatever enchantment that accursed Starswirl.  
Just the thought of him had him growling, the sound echoed through the chamber and there was a squeak from somewhere above before the sound of something falling reached him. Without even pausing he held out his paw and something tiny and really blue fell into it.  
Never ceased to amuse him that the domestic dogs were cursed with color blindness while his Canines were born with the ability to see color, and even to smell it.

Unfortunately, the blue color of what he had caught sent him into a flashback of someone else who had been blue, and it took more effort to snap himself out of those unwanted memories.  
Luckily whatever fell was now unconscious and he allowed himself to bring them closer so that he could get a better look without them freaking out.

A filly-pup, a blue one, a [really blue one with a sapphire coat and different shade of blues in its mane from a pale Diamond blue to a dark Turquoise, and several other colors that reminded him of other blue gems.  
The wings told him of what tribe she came from and gave him a clue of how he was freed, but his nose told him a different story and he felt like growling again if it weren’t for the sounds of his Canines running around barking and growling.  
With a huff he looked up at the mine and then down at his form. He was too big to even fit, and while he hated it, it looked like he would need to take a new form.  
Sometimes he envied those alicorns with all that power, and they didn’t need to be the size of a mountain.  
Sometimes.

Glancing at the filly-pup of whom he owes his freedom, however unintentional it might have been, he took a peek into her thoughts for a canine form and raised an eyebrow before shrugging. Not the worst form he could take.  
His form blurred as he shrunk, his fur going from its multi-colored fur to a dark red, the spikes on his back and tails receding as it replaced them with fluffy fur, joining into a single curled tail.  
The filly-pup was now only a third his size and he had the thought of becoming larger before huffing. No, it wasn’t like his strength weakened anyway.  
Taking a measuring look of the nearest opening, he flicked his tail before giving the slightest push.  
\--------

The Ruby Dogs all converged at the entrance where the loud growling from before had caught their attention.  
Some of them had no clue what went on and assumed it was something else, but a few like Chief Cas and Beta Pico knew the significance and exchanged looks.  
A small figure appeared right in front of them, revealing a red canine with a curly tail holding the fully pup in his paws and Cas instinctively flinched from the scent the stranger was giving off, one that the chief of each of the Four Canine tribes (even the Diamond Dogs no matter their ignorance of other subjects) memorized when the previous Chief stepped down. Pico himself knew the scent from when his granddog was in charge and he broke into the canine’s private cavern to look through his things.  
It was the last time that he did so.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the other Ruby Dogs.  
They all charged the unknown canine, ignoring Cas’ warning to stand back, but it was too late. The small dog appeared right in front of Cas looking unruffled while all the dogs behind him fell over, bruised and bloodied.  
“Master Ruffalo,” Cas assumed the proper position, baring his neck as he knelt down before the canine, Pico doing the same beside him.  
“You Chief?” the voice was quiet with an almost unheard echo if the Ruby Chief hadn’t been straining his ears.  
“Yes, Cas, Chief of the Ruby Dogs at your service,” apparently what he said was wrong as a rumbling growl reverberated through his fur.  
“Ruby Dogs?,” too late did he remember that the division of the canines occurred after this one’s imprisonment.  
“Jewel Dogs divided centuries ago in a dispute, now Ruby, Emerald, Sapphires, and Diamonds, Cas sorry Master,” the entire ground shook under the rage of the canine and the two conscious Ruby Dogs prepared for their deaths to be swift yet messy.  
Then there was a whimper and the shaking stopped, and they both dared to look up to see the filly-pup in the canine’s paws shaking.  
Ruffalo’s eyes were glowing red as he bared his teeth before he adjusted the little one, the fur on his head no longer spiked up.  
“Explain the dispute after you explain why filly-pup is in cave with scent of binding on wings, and why this one also bears the smell of blood not her own,” Cas swallowed, this was not going to end well.

Master Ruffolo stared at the scene before him, a blank expression on his face.  
“You are telling me that this Cornhusker had an interest towards the filly pup that no one put an end to?” Chico's ears pinned to his head as he tried to think of defense for the tribe.  
“We Ruby dogs do not interfere with the ponies, we make them work to pay off their debts,” the ground shook and they couldn’t say anything right could they?  
“ This filly-pup had no debt!” they trembled at his shout, “Now explain to me exactly what happens that you would do this, I did not think that my tribe, my canines would fall so far as to force filly-pup of this age into work we do not even do this to our own pups unless that has changed as well?” Cas looked offended.

“No master Ruffalo, we do not force the pups to do the work that this one has, but her uncle holds influence and debts as well with three of the four tribes and gave us no choice but to accept her in place of him. He threatened to send her to market and we decided that it would be better for her to remain in our sights than to condemn her to an even worse fate." This angered the Alpha even more but the shaking did stop (which caused them to sag in relief.)   
Ruffalo returned his attention to the mess in the room.  
“When did you discover this pony?” the smell was rather unpleasant.  
“We discovered him 10 minutes before your arrival my lord, he gave a great shout and when we found him it was too late and the filly pup’s wing binds were scattered across the room.” Pico explained.  
Ruffolo bent down and picked up a cloth with her scent and frowned as it was covered in the stallion's blood that now lay in pieces on the floor.  
Considering she had managed to slice straight through a magically enchanted chain, it didn’t surprise him that this kind of thing could happen as well. But it did not make any sense. This kind of magic was different than Pegasus magic yes and back then he remembered winged species commanding the winds much more precisley than any other pegasus, some with the ability of 'wind scars', but to this extent?  
Something was not right.  
"Where is The Record Keeper?" he asked, it is their responsibility to make sure that no knowledge of the jewel dogs is lost.  
The two unfortunate canine shared glances, swallowing as they dreaded this part of the conversation. Their god was not going to be happy.

When she woke up, it was to an entirely different storage room from before, with books instead of scrolls and where the ceiling was even lower.  
It didn’t take her long to remember what happened, and she immediately started searching for an exit, panic overriding her common sense.  
They had found Corn Husker, they knew what she did, she had to get out!

“This Ruffalo suggests you sit down before falling over, your stunt depleted your energy dangerously,” at the voice she froze, only then realizing what he said as her entire body locked up on her and she fell over.  
There was a sigh before he picked her up, setting her back on the cot she had been lying on.  
“Pony pup not in trouble, guards punished for letting foolish male pony leave fight.” A bowl of stew was placed before her and at his urging she drank the whole thing, feeling her energy return.

He took the bowl away and she looked down at her hooves, flinching when she saw the red stains on them.  
The image returned and this time she felt her stomach heave as the stew she had just consumed ended up on the floor.  
Tears came to the corner of her eyes as she stared at yet another mess she had made.  
“Please don’t tell them, please,” she was whispering this as another Ruby Dog appeared to clean everything up.  
“Don’t tell who?” his calm tone caused whatever restraint she had to break.  
“My family, or my uncle, if they knew,” she shivered, “Don’t make me fly, please don’t make me fly,” she felt horrified at breaking down in front of this canine who she didn’t even know.  
He said nothing as she continued sobbing and begging for him not to make her fly. She did not know who he was, he had the crimson fur of the other Ruby Dogs but he didn't put off the same airs as the others either.

When she finally calmed down he helped her clean up and gave her some water that actually didn't taste bad.  
“Pony pup should never have been here, but Wind Scar a dangerous, foolish pony,” the air became heavy as she looked up at him, “We cannot return you to him for fear of what’d he do, but we also cannot have you working as you did before, even if you learned to climb mine walls,” those words caused confusion.  
“Climb walls? I ha," but she had grabbed onto something when the wind sent her back up, had she grabbed onto the ceiling instead of ground like she thought?  
“It is not safe to run in mine with eyes closed, if not for Pegasus magic, you would have smashed your head against wall,” she felt numb, her magic made her climb the wall? Could ponies do that?  
“What are you going to do?” he coughed into his paw, looking even more severe.  
“Pony Pup will stay in this room and clean, walls and floor very dusty, pony pup can also help Gaius the griffin with food retrieval and prepping. We’ll make a tally of your work to take off Wind Scar’s debt,” and that was that.

Warmth from the sun after a long time underground made her feel a bit drowsy, and she almost fell asleep if Gaius (finally learning his name was a bit embarrassing but he didn't seem to mind it.) Had not dropped the bucket in front of her.  
"Ocean this way, permission to go farther," she nodded, picking up the bucket while he pulled the cart. She would've pulled her own cart but her wings were not liking anything around them and after the third broken harness she was just going to use the bucket.  
However, other than the occasional breaking or unscheduled wind sending dirt everywhere, the wind didn't feel as built up or wild as it was before. She had a feeling it was because she released a lot of it into that strange pit, but considering her new duties and freedom, she didn't break anything important.

For some reason she felt like something out there was cackling at that last sentence.

"We'll stop here," with a start she realized they were near the ocean and the sight was a whole lot better than the desert they were in before. With unease North thought back to being dropped off in an area with trees and grass, how extensive was the Ruby dog mine?   
Gaius was watching her again and she hurried to join him,  
"Does filly know how to swim?" North thought about it before nodding, "Good, will need help gathering some seaweed and fish for dinner." her ears fell back, he was eating fish and she was stuck with seaweed, her stomach didn't like that.  
"Fish?" he tilted his head,  
"Yes, and since we are out in the open I was thinking of smoking and grilling, how do you take yours?" she blinked.  
"I've never had fish," he dropped the sticks in his talons.  
"What?" she cringed at the whisper, "What about shellfish, chicken, or Tartarus even bugs of any kind?" she shook her head with a frown.  
"My p-parents gave us vitamins every morning for nutrition, and I ate a lot of fruits and vegetables, and oats, I asked about meat once and they didn't take it well," Gaius' eye was twitching and she swallowed, "Anyways, I thought with our teeth we can't have meat," he scoffed.  
"In small bites you can," then he started muttering about 'no wonder pegasus rely on magic for flying' which caught her attention.  
"Is it possible to fly without magic?" the eagerness in her tone threw him off and he frowned,  
"Let's get food, it recently stormed after all," drooping a bit at her question being ignored, North swam out into the ocean and dived a bit before bringing up some seaweed in her mouth.

After ten minutes her stamina waned and she swam back, wings beating against the current and reached the shore, only to stop at Gaius' raised eyebrow who pointed behind her.  
With some dread she turned and nearly screamed at all the floating bodies behind her, some cut in half. Others with cuts along their throats.  
"Swimming will have to be out," she stared at the carnage, flinching at the wing covering her head, "Dinner will be big," she whimpered.  
"I didn't even feel the magic leave," she tilted over and there was a sigh,  
"Rest for now," he cobbled together a net from debris and used it to scoop up most of the fish while North stared at the sand, her hoof swirling around the sand as she contemplated her future.  
It didn't look all that good.

The next morning they returned to the mine with a cart filled with smoked and grilled fish, and one shark, along with a bucket filled with shellfish, including an unlucky crab that had startled North by pinching her hoof. Gaius prepared dinner by himself with only North helping, the other ponies had their debts reviewed and some were released while others were relocated to other parts of the mine in case they tried asking questions about Corn Husker. Ruffalo surprisingly helped as well, cutting up vegetables that he himself had gathered and listened to what happened with a blank face, only his tail twitching revealing the discomfort.

North would be tempted to hug him if it wasn't for the aura he released anytime she so much as thought about it, as if he knew what she was thinking.  
"This is troubling," Ruffalo rubbed the tuft of hair underneath his chin and flicked North on the nose when she leaned towards him, she tried not to pout, "From what I've learned her Uncle refused to remove the bindings despite the laws against them and did not give any instructions on how to remove them. This kind of magic should not be contained, especially when it is newly awoken, when did it first appear," North gulped.  
"Three months ago," she wanted the answer to remain there but the raised eyebrow had her continuing with great reluctance, "I was startled and panicked and accidentally hurt my sister," she thought back to Corn Husker and shuddered, "I could've killed her," she said with horror, only to receive a bop on her head.

"No," Ruffalo's voice was firm, "What happened with Corn Husker was an unfortunate side affect of the binding as well his own actions. What he received was a mercy compared to what is normally done with these types," the look in his eyes made North shiver, but at the same time she felt a bit of comfort from his words.  
"But how long will this continue? I killed all those fish on accident, what if I accidentally hurt someone else? Is there a way to get rid of it?" the silence that fell made her look at both adults. Ruffalo's face was twisted into a frown but it was Gaius who caught her attention.  
"Yes," he whispered, a sad expression on his face, "But the alternative is not worth it," he spoke as if he went through it himself, but that made little sense, Griffins don't have magic, do they?  
"You used to have that magic," Ruffalo's statement was not a question and Gaius nodded.  
"A long time ago, but an incident with my own tribe resulted in the ability being lost forever, and after that my wing was taken from me as well. Little one, I know that you believe it to be a curse, so many do, but so long ago they considered it a gift," she avoided his look.  
"My own family sent me away because I hurt my sister, they saw my uncle bind me, and I-i don't even know if it's normal or not, I have less than a month before he comes to pick me up and I can't go back without the assurance that I will be able to control this so called 'gift.'" there was a sigh.  
"This one would suggest to have you remain for Gaius to teach you, but there are answers you must seek for yourself that is unattainable for non-ponies in Equestria. But if filly-pup wishes, we shall do what we can to help," North stared at the canine, a bit overwhelmed and the short canine found himself almost bowled over as the blue filly-pup cried into his fur.

Feeling a bit out of his depth, Ruffalo glared at a smirking Gauis, awkwardly patting the one responsible for his freedom and resisting the urge to throw her off. Someone of her talent should be nurtured and encouraged into a great asset, and he wasn't going to let whatever corruption is among the ponies now ruin that talent.   
Even if it meant dealing with those damn Alicorns again, at least this time around Starswirl won't be around to interfere. Now, what could they do to make sure this filly-pup's magic doesn't dice without her say-so?


	3. Pegasus in Library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own MLP, just my character and maybe the Ruby Dogs.

It’s been two months since she’s returned and North can honestly say that she’d prefer the mines and the strange presence of Ruffalo to the suffocation she felt in Cloudsdale. In her early years before the horrible summer the only issue she had about Cloudsdale was the lack of reading material (she ready everything in the one sole library which only amounted to around a hundred books)   
The one bookstore she found specialized in sport and flying books with the occasional weather one and even the foal books were all about flying to win the race, defending Equestria as a Royal Guard like her dad was, or contributing to Weather patterns like her mom. While the frustration towards lack of reading material had mounted, North had felt nothing else and figured she could always go to Canterlot or maybe even Ponyville (before the Return of Nightmare Moon of course, she did not want to get involved in any of the events.)

Now? The moment her hoof touched the cloud it was like everything had screamed and she passed out right in front of Wind Scar and her dad, or Bow Hothoof. She wasn’t sure he deserved the title of Dad from her anymore.  
She woke up on Bow’s back and was given a slight scolding for being dramatic and not giving a proper farewell and gratitude to the stallion who put aside time to train her all summer.  
Mining was supposed to be training? Then she recalled Scar’s warning of not telling her parents the truth and wondered exactly what they thought happened to her during the summer with her wings bound.

Her mom provided the answer, albeit an unwanted one,  
“We’re so glad that you went along with your uncle, we were so scared he wouldn’t be able to help you but he assured us that they would deal this ability of yours. Ooh I can’t wait to see what he taught you,” North just stared at the deluded mare, looking down at her nearly starved form and the marks on her wings.  
Whatever. She went passed the mare to the table, grabbing a sandwich and going upstairs to the normal room, only to no longer see her name next to Rainbow Dash’s.  
Ok, maybe they moved her to the next room.  
Unfortunately, the room she assumed to be hers turned out to be a shrine to her older sisters. Looking down the stairs where she could hear her parents whispering together, she sighed and went further up the stairs to the attic which wasn't all that stuffy thankfully.

Downing her sandwich, she moved several boxes, finding winter coats but setting them aside and eventually finding an old hammock that she couldn’t really remember where it came from. It did not take long to put it up, and she laid out a winter coat before curling up and going to sleep.  
It did not get better from there and North honestly didn’t know why she rejected Ruffalo’s offer in favor of returning to this place.

It felt like she was being suffocated every day and every night when she went to sleep the same dr- no nightmare appeared of a certain factory. A nightmare resembling certain fan videos she remembered from her previous life and she tried to make sense of it or at least get a different dream, but it stayed.   
Whatever happened when her magic freed itself started affecting her senses in protest of her refusal to release it. It wasn’t present in her house but the moment she stepped outside it felt like a pressure on her shoulder blades that increased the closer she came near the factory or the schoolhouse (which sucked because she had to go to the latter every day.)

This just made her even more determined to find answers, and she waited for the perfect moment to go to Canterlot.  
Which was difficult when her parents were on her case for things like refusing to flying at all to subtly (for them) blaming her for Dash’s absence from meal times. The latter stopped when she stopped going to meal times and left a note under Dash’s door telling her not to be worried about running into North Wind and that her younger sister would miss meal times to make her perfect life easier.

North couldn’t help the desire to add that little bitter note.  
If Rainbow Dash felt anything from the note she did not reveal it, nor did she try to approach North at school even when her younger sister’s classmates were giving her a hard time about being an ‘egghead’ and failing as a pegasus   
Should North feel guilt at the fact the filly meant to grow up to be the Element of Loyalty was proving the opposite of that trait, maybe; and should she herself feel guilty about upholding Rainbow Dash to the mare she wouldn’t become for another decade?  
After a moment North decided it did not matter, she had no plan on getting herself involved with the major characters and Rainbow Dash distancing herself worked.

Even if the hurt remained.

“I’m glad you came with me to guard training North, I guess Wind Scar knew what he was doing after all,” if Bow Hothoof had seen his daughter’s flinch, he might have thought differently, might.  
“Right,” North chose not to say anything else. It had taken careful maneuvering and conversations to convince her parents she had seen the error of her ways (even if the whole avoiding mealtimes stayed)   
The balloon landed in Canterlot and Bow placed is daughter on his back before flying to the castle. They arrived at the guard quarters where he placed her on the floor.

“Watch Daddy train with the others okay,” she nodded and he beamed before joining his men. North forced herself to watch the entire session, glad that Wind Scar wasn’t there, even as his name was mentioned as a top ranking guard with a rare pegasus talent that had made him so feared in the army. It made North sick, knowing that if he was this highly regarded, there was no way she could destroy his reputation unless she had the right resources. At six no one was going to take her seriously until she was finished with school and had her Cutie Mark.

But skipping grades in Cloudsdale couldn’t happen till she was at least eight or nine, and she needed to prove beyond anything that she held the knowledge that their twelve-year-old graduates had. Which meant she had to familiarize herself with the biased pro-pony propaganda that this EEA (didn’t take long to find out who was responsible) brandied about.   
North took a deep breath, finding the weight from Cloudsdale slide right off of her even as there was a different sort in Canterlot. Much more manageable and she tried to think up a plan to get down here more that did not involve Royal Guards fighting against one another. Then she could focus on her goals much more easily and work on what Master Ruffalo had told her.

Goal One: Study up on magical theory and see if she could apply it to her own, or at least lead her to other areas of magic to look for.  
The areas of magic available for study among pegasus were just as restricted as their libraries were, and North was hoping to find more branches, at least ones in control. Gaius taught her meditation and how to look inside for her magic, and even gave her several steps to follow each day to avoid ‘accidents’, but she still wished for it to be gone.

Goal Two: Look up all knowledge on speleology and spelunking because she needed to be more prepared before the next summer (even if Wind Scar didn’t plan on sending her there, she was not going to young flyer’s camp.) She needed to meet up with Ruffalo and Gaius again because so far they were the only adults in this world who knew her ability and did not condemn her for it. Whether they were wishing to use her North did not care, and a bonus of helping Gaius was the collection of pearls and other jewels that were set aside for her. She didn’t take them with her, instead she put them in a box and with Gaius permission put it in an opening no one else could reach in the pit.

Goal Three: Avoid her family and find the easiest way to get emancipated so that Wind Scar couldn’t influence her through them anymore. Something that was getting easier every day with their utter obliviousness and favouritism towards her sister. Not to mention she found out by accident that her parents were feeding Rainbow fish secretly to make her a ‘stronger’ flyer. North made a note to get her own food. The magic grew restless from lack of nutrition and she didn’t want to put anyone in danger.

Goal Four: Earn her Cutie Mark in anything not flying or Pegasus related in the hopes this cursed ability of hers would calm down till she could get rid of it. She studied everything about Cutie Marks as soon as she started understanding what they were (her memory of the show a bit spotty, so she wasn’t sure.) While the whole naming convention of foals that somehow led to their Cutie Marks resembling them annoyed her, she ignored it in favor of an unsettling observation about the Pegasus in Cloudsdale. One that gave her yet another reason for getting out as soon as possible with the bonus of never returning to the place without an excellent reason.

Goal Five: Use the magic in other ways to avoid build up and find someway to get to the ground without them getting suspicious so she could figure out the walking on walls trick. A bit Naruto, but she knew way more about that show than this one, to be honest. She barely knew the storyline of My Little Pony apart from the major characters and what they represented, which concerned her a bit because of timeline issues. Then again, this could be a completely different alternate universe and it would be far safer just going her own way.

Until she could fly safely, or not at all, she will have to focus on cloud hopping to get her through the sky, without earning a Cutie Mark in it of course.  
“North!” her dad scooped her up with one of his wings and she tried not to stiffen as he plopped her on his back, “Did you have fun, you know, I was thinking we could go get some ice cream and talk about the benefits of early guard training,” they were halfway out the gate when one of the unicorn guards called his name, stating there was an urgent meeting, “Oh,” he set her down, looking a bit disappointed, “Looks like that won’t happen today sweetie, here,” he gave her a small bag of bits, “Get yourself lunch and I’ll meet you,’ he trailed off, thinking about it, she didn’t want to but she still suggested it.

“The library? That way if I’m done with lunch I can go somewhere that won’t kick me out for staying too long, and it’s the only building closest to here,” he looked at her for a moment and she thought maybe he was going to deny it, instead he smiled.  
“Great idea! Perfect place for a little filly to pass the time, tell me if they’ve updated their comic selection okay?” he disappeared through the gates and with a sigh she went towards the library, stopping at the nearest cafe where she grabbed a sandwich and water bottle.

Finishing the last of her lunch right before the entrance, she checked for crumbs before going over to the magical theory section.  
Which of course only contained unicorns, some of which gave her odd looks she paid no mind to in favor of grabbing the lowest books on the shelves and going towards the science section to find a table and some books on speleology.

Dead end. She found books on geology and one tiny book about spelunking adventures, but apparently cave studies was not a big thing in Canterlot.   
Which was on a mountain, a very tall mountain, no doubt with a large cave system that might or might not have pony-made passages leading into the castle (not that she would go for that very purpose, of course.)  
Taking out a scroll, she started on making notes, writing them in the Ruby dog script that reminded her a bit of Japanese kanji (which was a kind of funny since Ruffalo looked like a Shiba Inu.) She would need examples of griffin script but from Gaius’ accent it might be like Gaelic script and while she wasn’t familiar with it, he promised to teach her or find some way of giving her a language primer.

(“Might be nice to have someone interested in learning our language,” he grumbled underneath his breath, she pretended not to hear it.)  
Letting the quill drop from her mouth, she rubbed her sore jaw and tried not to let her jealousy show at the sight of the unicorns using their magic to write notes.  
“What I wouldn’t give to have hands,” ‘again’ she thought the last part to herself, why couldn’t she have been reborn as a Minotour, those existed here right? Glancing at the clock and her remaining books, she sighed and put them all on a cart where the librarian would return them after hours and made her way back outside.

Finding the nearest bench, she made herself comfortable and kept an ear out for Bow’s voice, soaking in the sun and finding herself dozing a bit.  
A blast of powder caught her off guard and before she could even react she was already asleep. Water in her face woke her up and spluttering, she shook her head, glaring up at her kidnapper which turned out to be a unicorn filly only a little older than her.   
With a light aquamarine coat, gray cyan mane with white highlights, and gold eyes observing her, North could only wonder why she felt the need to kidnap other fillies.  
“Ok,” a light shone in her face and North flinched back, “Tell me everything you know!” the demand made her blink.  
“About what?” the filly huffed,  
“Don’t play dumb, I heard you talking in the library, you know something!” her hoof nearly hit North’s face as she pointed and the six-year-old sighed.  
“Can you please get to the point so we don’t go in circles?” the light turned off, and a picture was slammed against the table she’d been placed at.  
“What do you know about humans,” she stared at the picture for a moment before pointing at the mouth.  
“I know that not all their teeth are pointy, there are a few pointed ones for eating meat but most of them are kind of flat, and humans don’t have tails either,” the picture was taken away, and she stared at the filly who was looking at her with tears in her eyes, “Um, did I-” her question was cut off by being tackled to the ground and it was only the size of the filly’s hooves that stopped her from stiffening at the sudden contact.

“Finally, someone else knows about humans. When I heard you say hands, the options were Minotaurs or humans,” the tears in her coat were increasing and North wondered if she should’ve denied it after all.  
“Ok, but why kidnap me?” the filly flinched and pulled back, looking a bit sheepish as she rubbed her eyes.  
“I didn’t know where you lived and did not want to ask you in public where ponies could hear us. Humans aren’t a popular subject right now, and I was close to giving up on researching anything about them. Last night I even wished on a shooting star for a sign,” and she was being hugged again, “And you came!” North was a bit bemused, and opened her mouth to reply when the door to the room they were in burst open and a mare with a darker coat but similar features to her kidnapper stood, Bow right next to her still in his Royal Guard uniform.  
“Lyra Heartstrings! I did not believe it when this stallion came to me with the news of you kidnapping another filly but here you are, I hope you have a goo-” her eyes fell on the picture and the scowl made Lyra flinch back, which North did not like.

“I see,” the mare breathed out through her nose, “Instead of giving up this stupid pursuit of yours, you decided instead to rope an innocent filly into your theories. Humans are nothing but a myth and from this point on,” the picture was lifted and burned into ash, “There will be no more talks, I apologize officer,” North watched Lyra stare at the ashes, ears flat against her head and gritted her teeth at the hopeless look the filly had.  
“What’s wrong with believing in humans?” her question caught the adult’s questions, the mare blinking.  
“Sweetie, what Lyra has to-” she cut the mare off, ignoring Bow’s disapproval.  
“I knew about humans before Lyra came to me, and they may be myths now, but myths start from somewhere. She might have kidnapped me, but if she went this far based on a comment I made, then she must want someone to confide in that cannot be found in her own family.” she slipped out of the ropes, (the filly wasn’t good at tying knots.) And sat next to Lyra, who was staring at her with wide eyes.  
“There’s nothing wrong if she talks about humans with me, is there, and doesn’t kidnap anyone else?” it took a moment before the unnamed mare finally responded.

A week later  
Lyra stared at the visitor, mouth a bit open.   
“You came back,” she squeaked, flushing at the amused look.  
“Do you have anywhere private that we can talk?” Lyra looked taken aback but thought about it,  
“Well, there is my great-uncle’s old observatory,” it wasn’t far from her house and Lyra tried to think about what the filly could want. She was still surprised that her Mom didn’t banish North from the house or got mad at her. Instead, the mare sent them off with a pensive frown and said nothing the whole week about the incident.  
They took the secret route to the place (since technically Lyra wasn’t allowed in there) and Lyra helped hold up the loose panel for North to get in.  
“So, I’m surprised your parents are letting you talk to me, although I foal napped you,” there was a small scoff from the pegasus.  
“Took little actually, so long as I ask about ‘seeing’ Bo-Dad’s guard practice and do all the exercises he wants me to do, they don’t really care much. Besides, I asked if it was alright to befriend a unicorn and dared them to say no,” Lyra’s brow furrowed.  
“Why would that work?” North shrugged, taking a broom and to Lyra’s shock, stood on her back hooves and started sweeping.  
“We live in Cloudsdale and there’s a sort of mentality there about pegasus superiority. With him working as a palace guard, if there’s any talk of him refusing to let his daughter befriend a unicorn, there might be talk. But now, so long as I have a friend that does not live in Cloudsdale, I can visit even when there is no Guard practice,” the unicorn frowned.  
“Are we friends? Sounds like you are using me as an excuse or something,” she took a broom as well and tried to imitate the other’s posture but the pain made her fall back down, “How are you doing that?” her curiosity warred with the weariness at the other filly’s reasons.  
North put down the broom and Lyra watched as the pegasus lied down,  
“You can say it's an excuse, but you can also say that we both have interests we want to do that are hindered by adults. So long as they think we are doing ‘safe’ activities, they won’t bother us. I’m studying certain objects and need the library in Canterlot to do it, and you want to learn about humans while hanging out with someone who does not make fun of you. If we do become friends in time, then that’s it, but right now getting to know one another is important,” Lyra thought about it. It sounded like fun, sort of, and it’s not like she had anything else apart from those stupid tutoring sessions.  
Huh.  
“Okay, but as part of whatever agreement we have, promise that it will not be a one-sided give or take thing,” North looked offended.  
“It won’t,” she stated, holding out a hoof, “Now, my name is North Wind, I’m six years old and wish to study magical theory, speleology, and to earn my Cutie Mark in something that has nothing to do with my name,” Lyra hesitantly took the hoof.  
“Lyra Heartstrings, I’m eight years old, and I wish to study humans, music, and to earn my Cutie Mark in Music as well,” they shook and she couldn’t help but giggle a bit before stopping, “So what do you want to do first? Go to the library? They don’t have a vast selection of human books,” North pointed a hoof towards the center of the observatory.  
“Cleaning,” Lyra tried to protest, then ended up coughing on some dust from the previous sweeping.  
“Right,” guess they were starting this ‘friendship’ with cleaning.


	4. Unicorn in Cloudsdale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not own MLP, just my character North Wind

After a year of knowing North Wind, there are twelve things that Lyra could say she knew for certain about the cunning little filly.

The first is that despite sounding so calculating about everything (including the reason for their friendship,) North herself is desperately lonely and needs somepony to be there for her. Lyra heard briefly about somepony named Ruffalo and someone under the name Gauis, but the blue Pegasus kept those details to herself and refused to say anything more on the matter. Considering it was only their third time meeting one another, Lyra felt it was fine if her younger friend needed to keep secrets.

The second is that North has a slight obsession with being organized and orderly, Lyra had only found this out when she entered the planetarium to find the entire area spotless and North working on the library with scary intensity. There was no housekeeper to maintain the building so Lyra had been using one or two rooms, keeping them in a somewhat clean condition, North apparently did not agree with that. Every time she arrived at the planetarium she found North wiping down everything and she even went and got a trash can for every room that they used marked recycle and regular trash.

Third is North’s awareness but obliviousness of her own physical and mental needs, Lyra did not want to know why North seemed to think eating two days a day is okay. Or the fact that the filly looked all over Canterlot for a griffin run restaurant and actually went in to get a meal with meat in it. At one point Lyra found her opening a crate that came from somewhere and almost gagged at the smell and sight of the dead fishes within. There were two crates of meat, one filled with smoked meat while the other was filled with ice and raw ones with a book on how to prepare them. North had asked her if it was possible to use the freezer in the observatory and despite her disgust Lyra led her to it. This was definitely something that the filly wanted to be kept secret and after eating a small bite of smoked fish and not getting sick, Lyra decided not that bad after all. North admitted to needing fish for her diet and how her parents refuse to give her meat for fear of it 'corrupting' her while giving it to her sister who actually 'needs' it.   
Lyra was really starting to hate this so called family of North's.  
Then at one point they found out that the Pegasus direly needed glasses, Lyra had only noticed this when she caught her squinting at something on the wall and forced the filly to take an eye exam. She ended up with glasses for reading and one for nearsightedness, she also heard something from the doctor about similar cases from those who spend a lot of time reading or working in the dark. When she asked North about it, the filly stated she read in the dark but did not elaborate any further. This added another key to the puzzle that Lyra had on her friend.

Fourth is that North's knowledge in certain areas should not be possible, nor should her interest in them. When Lyra complained about the tutoring that she was getting in magic (none of her teachers understood why she was having difficulty), North asked her some questions, looked at the material her tutors had assigned her and two hours later she produced an entire scroll of all the theory broken down in a way that Lyra understood much easier. Within an hour she was producing a ball of light from her horn and couldn't help the squeal coming from her mouth. After two weeks she could do levitation and telekinesis spells (even if her limit was anything under ten pounds.) Unfortunately or not, while she was practicing the magic, North devoured the rest of her magical books and did notes not just to summarize them, but to critique some of them. Mutters about favoritism and narcissistic unicorns filled the air, and she gathered all the useful notes into a notebook which she placed into a folder; which was then put into the bottom of the bookshelf in one office in the observatory.   
There were ten rooms within the observatory, not including the main one with the telescope and they had gone through each room to decide what to do with the contents. Lyra felt bad in the beginning since North spent most of her time cleaning on the one day she came down. Then she started staying for the entire weekend, and Lyra knew if there was a way North would only attend school in Cloudsdale during the day and sleep in Canterlot at night. They arranged the first two rooms to contain all the research that the previous owners had done and the third room contained all the equipment which had been difficult to move around. Rooms four through six were their study rooms, Lyra bringing over all the books that used to belong to her dad before her mom tried to throw them away. Room seven was North's private room located right in the basement where she warned Lyra to knock before coming in. The seriousness in her eyes made the older filly agree. Room Eight was Lyra's own private room, she even put a small bed in there and all of her comics that she did not want to keep at home. They left the last two rooms alone just in case (even if she'd seen North cover the walls in maps of cave systems.)

The fifth thing that Lyra learned about North Wind was her desire not to get a Cutie Mark that resembled her name. Of course, she already knew the Pegasus didn’t want to get one in areas Pegasus were good for, but this was a kind of different. The bookworm was adamant about gaining a Cutie Mark that has no relation at all to her namesake and went into a rant about how it makes little sense that so many ponies got their Cutie Marks in areas that centered on their names.  
“I mean, how do the parents know? How is it possible for them to somehow know what their foals would be like? I mean, it would make more sense if somepony was named after their Cutie Mark, but no, are there seers put at the hospitals who tell the parents some clue or,” Lyra stuffed a ravioli in her mouth and pointed at the other ponies staring in their direction, causing the Pegasus to meep and hide under the table in embarrassment.

The sixth thing was that North was terrified of using her wings in any situation, and that she learned how to get around by the most unusual means.

“Use your wings and flap up,” she called down to the terrified pony who dangled on her rope, a simple spelunking expedition had ended up with North’s rope somehow falling from its grip on the rock above and the poor filly was clinging onto a jutted rock. Lyra knew that her wings worked from the exercises she'd seen the filly put them through, but the pegasus refused to fly for any reason. North took her rope and eyed her choices, the trembling in her hooves betraying her nerves but she seemed to know what she was doing as she knelt before jumping on another rock, scrambling when only her front hooves found purchase and climbed on, tears building up in her eyes which she wiped quickly. Lyra wanted so badly to go find help but they were somewhere far from a village and she did not want to leave North by herself and she frantically tried to summon magic for a levitation spell. Then she watched in disbelief as North stared at the rock before climbing it vertically with no ledges, as if she was walking on the ground. As soon as those blue hooves came over the ledge Lyra grabbed her and held her in a tight grip.  
“Never do something like that again,” the unicorn begged her, only to despair at the calculating edge that took over the terrified sheen from before. Questions about North's strange ability put on hold till the filly could master it herself, not that Lyra wanted to learn it at the moment with all her focus on her own magical abilities.

The seventh thing she learned was the reason behind North’s fear of the Rainbow Factory, and she did not know whether to be horrified or amused.  
“Where did you hear those stories anyways?” this was met with mumbling and mutters about rumors and dreams and she sighed,  
“Have you thought about investigating it?” this was met with furious headshakes and she did not even know North could look as terrified than she did in the cave, so she dropped the subject. She did not blame North for being so scared either, there were horror stories about things done to unicorn fillies and colts who were found to be ‘lacking’ in magical abilities, and the horrors about the statues in the gardens kept her away from the Canterlot Castle.   
“So you haven’t visited the place to see what they do at all,” she sweat dropped at the answer, after all, her mother must be worried to death about her daughter’s (ir)rational fear of the Rainbow Factory where she worked. Not that Lyra cared what the mare must think if what she is getting from North is any indication.

The eighth thing she learned was about North’s tendency to collect, and when she meant to collect, she meant hoard. She came across the filly putting different rocks they found in caves on the shelves in the planetarium and the gems (that one place in Ponyville contained a lot of gems.) in a safe for future emergencies. It wasn't just rocks either, soon every research paper North wrote found themselves on the shelves in book or scroll form, blueprints of caves they visited and records of what happened going on a different shelf. After Cider Season in Ponyville (they started visiting after Hearth's Warming) Lyra had to draw the line when she found the wooden mugs handed out by the Apple Family were cleaned out and filled with pens,  
“Please collect things that make sense,” she had begged the stubborn girl (filly, the girl was term humans used.)   
The next week she stared at the seed collection and had to face hoof when North admitted to liking the idea after hearing Granny Smith (why were most of their trips planned to Ponyville anyway?) talk about her family in the old days.

The ninth thing she learned was that for her age, North was exceedingly strong. It had not been as obvious before when they were just going through research stuff or going on hikes or spelunking. But once they came across a traveling magician who needed help to pull a cart out of the ditch and Lyra’s jaw dropped when North took the harness and started pulling with the unicorn. The cart came out easily after that and as thanks, he gave them some books on his trade which North added to her book collection. Then it was as if the veil lifted as Lyra saw her friend doing physical things that should not be possible at all for her, but she did not voice it, sure she would find out the reasons later.

The tenth thing she learned was the real reason behind North’s fascination with caves, why her eyesight was poor, her eating habits and everything. Summer had begun and she was surprised to learn from North that she was being sent to her uncle’s again like last year when it was obvious the filly hated him. But grew concerned when she overheard Rainbow Dash mutter something about hoping the lessons stuck this time and about a wing binding.

When North came home a month early (her parents had demanded it) Lyra had confronted her, but even then, she could see the obvious difference. North looked exhausted but at the same time, she had a muscle tone to her that Pegasus normally don’t, the marks cleverly hidden underneath the wings that North rarely used in her home. This answered the question of why North was so strong for her age if she had been mining the whole time, though this time apparently the Diamond Dogs (Ruby Dogs North had corrected her) had forced her to enter some sort of battle royal to prove her toughness. Lyra wanted to give the adults an earful, but North had stopped her, saying adults would always believe other adults over children, and so long as North did good work, her uncle couldn’t do too much to her.  
“Though I do not see him as Uncle, he is forever Wind Scar to me, despite my distaste for the same word in our name,” she had said and Lyra growled.  
“It is not fair though, you are supposed to enjoy your summers, not work, and your wings,” she looked ready to cry and North quickly gave her a handkerchief.  
“It’s fine, I have friends among the Ruby Dogs who I enjoy seeing, I actually saw one of them recently. Having a network in the underground could prove to be useful,” groaning at the pun, Lyra gave her friend a look.  
“Just promise me that if he does try anything, you will find a way out of there,” her friend blinked before smiling,  
“It will be fine, my uncle won’t be able to run from his debts for very long anyways,” Lyra decided not to ask after seeing her friend’s expression, there were some things a seven-year old’s face should not show.

The eleventh thing was that when she wasn’t around ponies in Canterlot or from visits to Cloudsdale via cloud walking spell, North Wind secretly had a sweet and spicy addiction. Lyra lost count the amount of times when they were at Sugarcube Corner and North would order a chocolate milkshake with different peppers, one time it would be a ghost pepper, the other time with a jalapeno one. The other customers would stare and wince at the steam coming from North’s ears when she ate a hot one but the filly did not seem to notice. During Nightmare Night, she made hot sauce from various peppers and dipped candy canes and other candies they had gotten from their trick or treating night. North had dressed up as an explorer while Lyra had dressed as a mummy.

“Ok, I’m curious, why the fascination with hot sauce?” Lyra asked and North took her spicy flavored candy cane out of her mouth.

“I like spicy stuff,” she explained, “And combining them with sweets makes for interesting flavors and combinations,” she took out a notebook and Lyra slammed her face into the table at the title ‘Sweet vs. Spicy’ on the cover.

“Of course, you are recording those as well,” then she had a thought, and it came out of her mouth before she could stop it, “Isn’t Rainbow liquid said to be the spiciest in Equestria,” and saw North’s mouth pull into a frown,

“Not something I will try,” she said dryly and Lyra sheepishly apologized, putting something in her mouth and too late realized it was one of the already dipped candy and rushed to the nearest trough to get rid of the burning taste.

The twelfth thing happened when Lyra brought two fellow unicorns with her to Cloudsdale, one from her school and the other who was a former mate in kindergarten. She had gotten accepted into a program for fillies and colts, who wanted to attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns that was held on the campus itself and had run into one student there. Despite the unicorn’s haughty and arrogant attitude, Lyra felt something similar with her she felt from North and saw if the two would hit it off.

Unfortunately, when North arrived the unicorn decided she wanted to see the Rainbow Factory immediately but when the youngest filly said it was closed because of maintenance, had suggested they sneak in to see what was going on.

“Unless of course, you are afraid of seeing something you shouldn’t,” the orange-furred unicorn taunted the blue Pegasus causing the other two of their group to tense.

“I do not want to get in trouble just because you want to fulfill some sort of superiority or inferiority complex that you have. I may be the youngest and not even have my Cutie Mark, but that does not mean I am naïve. If you want to see the Rainbow Factory, you can arrange a visit in the future when it is open to the public, but not today, who wants to visit the stadium where all the flying sports are played?” and the discussion was dropped. Lyra couldn’t tell whether her upperclassmen was impressed with North’s show of spine, but the green unicorn felt her own respect growing for the studious filly.

The twelfth thing she learned about her friend that even if she had her ways and believed certain things about her race, she would not disobey rules to satisfy an older pony’s ego. This should not have been new, but Lyra felt it best she tell herself this before she could forget.

Of course the orange unicorn never returned but Lyra could only muse that if they had met differently, North Wind and Sunset Shimmer would be great friends. There were still areas where she felt like she did not know anything about her friend, but in their journey through Equestria that no one but the two of them knew about, Lyra decided she did not really care. There were secrets that one must keep till they are ready to reveal them, and she wasn't in a rush to demand the now seven year old to tell her anything.   
Even if she was dying to know who keeps sending the filly those crates of meat without anyone getting caught.


	5. Pegasus on the Rock Farm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own MLP, just my character North Wind and maybe the Ruby Dogs

“Cloudy Quartz, thou must come and see this letter,” with some concern she did so, the moment her husband had opened the letter he had stood rock still and hadn’t even scolded Pinkamena for accidentally knocking over the cart of rocks.

“What is within this communication?” she took it from him with his permission and began reading.

“A filly by the name of North Wind ahs requested our hospitality for the last month of summer. She wishes to learn from our ways and pick at our knowledge of geology. This North also states that she will work and sleep in a nearby cave if we are unable to provide boarding.” What an unusual request, and Cloudy Quartz could not find it in her to be offended at the insinuation as they have never had anyone over before.

One thing did stand out to her however.

“By her name we can only assume which tribe she is from,” he nodded, a grim look on his face as they thought about why a pegasus filly was interested in their way of life.

“But tis not a horrible idea,” she agreed on that part, on the whole they get requests to sell their rocks and even do construction work sometimes. They also harvest crystals to sell to unicorns for certain spells and apart from asking the local weather team for certain conditions to be maintained; no one has ever requested to live on their farm to find out what they do day to day.

Looking back down on the letter she searched for the filly’s age but it was remarkably blank apart from a forwarding address to Ponyville

Did this filly have a good reason for wanting to stay with them on the Rock Farm?

North had a good reason for wanting to stay with the Pie Family on the Rock Farm. In fact she had several good reasons.

Number One was that it meant she didn’t have to deal with her family and Chief Ruffalo agreed to let her spend the last month of summer on the Rock Farm before they would pick her up to maintain cover. He was still searching for the traitors in the Ruby Dog tribe that had sworn loyalty to her uncle but it was proving harder than he expected. Not to mention the stallion somehow got holds in the Diamond and Sapphire tribes respectively. The Emerald tribe hadn’t been seen in quite some time and unfortunately there was no records of where they had gone in any of the archives she could get to. As far as her parents were concerned she was with her uncle doing special ‘training’, they did not even push for her to be in flight camp.

Well, technically her f- Bow Hothoof tried once but Windy Whistles insisted on her going with Wind Scar again for safety and Rainbow Dash said nothing, as usual.

Number Two was the fact that she found evidence of a cave somewhere near there but needed to ask permission from them to use it. There was said to be some sort of strange magic in the cave and she wanted to see for herself what it was.

Number Three was her growing interest in geology and speleology and the decreasing material available for her to devour. The idea of a rock farm appealed to her and she was hoping that they would have new material she could look at.

Number Four is the fact the name of the family was Pie which meant Pinkie Pie was there. She hadn’t known that the filly lived on a rock farm (her knowledge of the show was spotty at best) and despite her misgivings about meeting other main characters, her curiosity of the Element of Laughter’s home village won out.

Number Five, she was going to put together a project that would impress the teachers and earn her an early graduation. She had already cleared it with the teacher in charge of the graduating class whose bitterness at the way things were done in Cloudsdale (he wanted to be a painter but his dreams were crushed years ago.) led to him agreeing to reading her project and giving her two separate tests, one near the end of summer and one at winter. If she passed both she was considered for graduation and did not have to worry about school anymore. He would file her graduation to be announced by the end of the year, at which point her parents might figure it out too late, but she would be out of there.

Hm, maybe she could arrange a transfer to Lyra’s school, maybe? Unless they did not let Pegasii or Earth Ponies attend their school which did not seem all that fair to her. Then again, going to Canterlot permanently means a chance at running into Bow Hothoof, Wind Scar, or worse, Princess Celestia herself.

Maybe two years ago she would have considered going straight to the princess about what happened, used the opportunity of her dad being a Royal Guard to slip into the palace and try to find the alicorn.

Then she read an edict sent by the princess and vowed never to go into the castle. The princess apparently decreed that all bearing the ‘Blessing of the Wind’ (a title North gagged at when she found it) were to be taken into custody by the Royal Guards. Those who had been taken in the past were never heard from again and she did not want to find out what happened to them, at all.

Why her parents hadn’t done it yet was a mystery, but she had a strange feeling Wind Scar was behind it, as was her mo-Windy Whistles who she caught arguing with Bow about it once. Not that it mattered to her in the end, they’ve already proven that they did not have her best interests at heart and the constant meat withholding in an attempt to keep her curse in control was getting tiresome.

A week after sending the letter to the Pie Farm, she went down to Ponyville where Granny Smith greeted her with a mane rustle and a reply.  
“Never met a rock farmer, yer sure you want to do this?” the Apple matriarch asked, a bit concerned, but North gave hear a reassuring grin.  
“Yeah, it’s the best option,” the school year was almost over and she had a back-up plan in case they couldn’t take her in.  
Go to Klugetown. She hadn’t been there yet but Ruffalo and Gaius made her promise not to go there by herself, or just with Lyra.  
“Well I do hope you plan on visiting sometime this summer, none of my grandchildren want to listen to my stories anymore, and I need someone to share embarrassing stories with,” she whispered the last part, making North snort.  
“More like someone to keep the embarrassing photos you’ve taken somewhere safe so that they don’t try to destroy them,” the green Earth pony winked.  
North liked Granny Smith, she was one of the only mares in Ponyville who didn’t automatically try to coddle her or force her to give up her parents’ names so that she could contact them. She accepted North’s interest in weird areas and had plenty of stories about the past.  
Even ones about the Wind.  
North didn’t say she had it and Granny never asked her, but North learned more about legends and the like from this mare than she did in the books contained within the Ruby Dog archives. Including a particular rumor about a place capable of relinquishing the Blessing back to the Wind itself albeit with a price. Gaius had said something similar but refused to tell her anything and made her gut fish in retaliation when she tried to push the issue.  
Gutting a fish with only a knife in her mouth was kind of disgusting and she gave up asking him.

North figured the mare was trying to subtly warn her away from doing such a thing by also telling stories of those who used their Blessing to protect their loved ones; but the filly felt they had a better hoof or claw at life than she did. They didn’t have family members who hoisted them off to a wicked uncle who was too lazy to pay off his own debt.  
Ripping open the letter she skimmed over it, letting out a breath of relief, they said yes, with the added note that yes, they did have room for boarding.  
“Well that is good news, why don’t we celebrate with some mulled cider and nachos, without my son finding out of course,” North couldn’t help but laugh at that, Granny was always trying to enjoy her favorite foods, but her overprotective son has lately been trying to get her to eat more healthy and cut down on salty foods.  
“Sure, with cheese and habanero sauce?” they went into the grocery store and came out with a bag of chips and mentioned items, taking them to a secret spot where they settled down and began eating, trading words and embarrassing stories. North talked about the caves she’s been to and Granny Smith about her farming days.  
It was nice.  
“I can’t believe you had a picnic with Granny Smith and didn’t invite me,” Lyra pouted as they waited for the train.  
“Sorry, it was sort of last minute and I was only there to pick up a letter which thankfully had good news,” she had the minimum packed to avoid suspicion, and was dreading the moment her uncle arrived.  
“Sorry I can’t come with you, but I’m going to music camp,” the mint green unicorn said apologetically, North waved her off.  
“It’s fine, make sure to at least message me when you can, and no casting magic willy nilly either,” she said dryly, Lyra winced as she remembered a few memorable moments of failed magic casting.  
“I won’t, I’m actually thinking of signing up for a different instrument than the lyre to play, I’ve been taking so many lyre lessons but I’m already proficient, and it will be good change up between instruments,” they said one last goodbye before Lyra disappeared on the train and North spotted her uncle with his usual unsettling smirk heading right towards her.  
‘It’ll only be two days’ she told herself, ‘two days’ as the stallion forced her into the next train and put the binds on which he then covered with a Wonderbolts shirt.  
‘T.W.O. D.A.Y.S.’ she reaffirmed, trying to focus on how she’ll be spending the next month on the Pie Farm.

Over the past two years she had exhausted all the resources on speleology and magical theory at the Canterlot Library, even the Archives that she was able to gain access to once. In Ponyville she tried not to be dismissive of their selection which contained more books on speleology. Her and Lyra must have gone to fifty different caves over the past two years when they could. The only areas near them that they had not gone to were the caverns said to exist beneath Canterlot and the cave system in the Everfree Forest. The former because they did not have the clearance nor did they know where to start, and the latter because, well it was the Everfree and even North had enough preservation not to go in there till she was older. Lyra had been very patient when it came to her interests, even though at some points the unicorn looked like she wanted to quit cave exploring.  
There were several things that North had learned about Lyra through the past two years they had known one another.

First was that Lyra’s fascination from humans had stemmed from a book that her deceased father had had in his collection. He read it to her once as a bedtime story and she learned all she could on humans from him. But when he passed her mother put a stop to the subject and Lyra had been forced to keep her interests hidden, it didn’t last long.

Second was that Lyra had way more patience for North’s ‘quirks’ which North admitted to herself would drive any other pony crazy. Sure, the mint unicorn had interesting expressions when North did something particularly strange, but at least she had the sense to ask instead of judge on it (especially the sweet and spicy obsession North herself had.)

Third is something North feels Lyra’s mom is unaware of, and that is Lyra’s prodigious talent in the field of music. When it comes to memorizing music or playing, Lyra practically had a perfect pitch and great memory when it came to music. Though if Lyra could only use that memory for magical spells and how to perform them correctly, North shook her head. She tried teaching North music but they both found out the hard way that while she can read notes and such, she could not sing. Lyra's despair was almost amusing if North didn't find it somewhat annoying that she could not sing at all.

Fourth is Lyra’s noble front which North had witnessed once or twice when she saw her at a dinner with other ponies. It was obvious the pony had gone through years of etiquette, and North did not know whether to be impressed or freaked out that Lyra could pull off looking so poised and elegant, and calm.

Fifth is that apart from being afraid of the statues of the garden of Canterlot, Lyra had a small fear of fire, and was kind of wary about dragons. Something about a migration incident and a torched campsite (along with Lyra’s stuffed animal.)   
Sixth is that Lyra’s uncle was a very important person despite his young age and that the planetarium had belonged to his father who had been a very important astronomer. Lyra had an interest in studying the stars herself, just not to the extent of looking at it as a career. Her uncle had found out about them using the observatory, but instead of getting mad, arranged it so that they wouldn't get in trouble for using the place and even put the observatory under Lyra's name.

There were other things that North learned about Lyra that she could write a small report on, but above everything, North was glad the older filly was her friend. Being mentally older than a lot of fillies, North thought her only friends would be Ruffalo and Gaius till she got older and made friends with adult ponies. (Even if Ruffalo was gruff most of the time and tried to deny the fact of them being friends.) But Lyra was a breath of fresh air, who did not mind that despite being two years younger, North was much smarter than her in some areas. They both had an understanding that there were things the other was good at, that the others were not, so no jealous or ugly feelings had risen, yet at least. Sometimes North wished she was a unicorn, and sometimes Lyra wished she was a Pegasus, but it was something the two debated over several times despite knowing it could never be possible for them.

The whole month she spent between hunting and controlling exercises with Gaius and in an entirely new archive that Ruffalo had managed to unseal. Luckily there was some sort of special magic in place that kept the work from rotting, but all that she found in there were mining records and complaints about ponies and griffins on the ‘surface’. Ruffalo also had her giving reading and writing lessons to some of the high-ranking canines in the tribe, Ruffalo himself included. Then of course there was the fighting matches she did the previous summer that she had to do again to increase her rank among the canines. She had to do this without her curse activating which also served as a way of strengthening her mental fortitude and control. Control she’d been perfecting in the basement of the planetarium for the past two years along with her fighting abilities. Lyra was so confused when North asked if she could borrow some of the old training equipment from her house’s attic that she felt a bit bad. It probably didn’t help that she asked Granny Smith for some old round-up training poles that she could practice jumping and weaving around. But if she didn’t practice there was a chance of her losing a lot more matches than she did and she did not want to risk being caught off guard.

Now finally she was done and if Wind Scar were to ask where she was, they would tell him she was at a different mine.   
“Are ye North Wind?” forcing the desire to raise an eyebrow at the old way of speaking, she turned to see a stallion standing with an impassive face, wearing a hat and with a straw in his mouth.

“Yes, I am, Mr. Pie?” she asked attentively and he gave a slow nod. He then turned and walked away and she had to trot to catch up to him as he led her to the Pie’s rock farm.

There were not that many rock farmers and North (before her thoughts turned to Lyra) had been thinking about her reasons for choosing the Pie Family Farm to learn from that had nothing to do with her other goals.

The Pies were the foremost experts in geology and have had their own dealings with different canine groups in the past. Hopefully not all of them were negative ones.   
They came upon the rock farm and she could see the Pie sisters in the distance, turning or flipping over the rocks,  
“There is to be a rain schedule for tomorrow, so we must finish what needs to be done,” Igneous Rock Pie explained and she hummed in thought as they reached the house where the mother was spooning out soup.  
“So this is the little Pegasus interested in how we do things here,” Cloudy Quartz looked down her glasses at North who straightened under her gaze, “If ye want to stay here, ye will be expected to finish chores and listen to everything we say,” she nodded and the mare called her daughters in for a meal break.  
One of Pinkie’s sisters approached her and looked at her through narrowed eyes,  
“Stay away from Houlder’s Boulder fly pony,” she said pointing at the large rock off to the side of the house and North nodded quickly, not wanting to get on their bad sides. The filly sniffed and entered the house, grabbing her bowl of rock soup that her mother handed her.

“Sorry about Limestone,” one of them said, a blank expression on her face, and North gave a small smile.  
“I do not mind all that much, it is very important to your family right?” the older filly nodded and led the Pegasus to the dining room where bowls of rock soup were being devoured by the younger sisters.  
“It is surprising one your age is not pursuing other interests, what made you interested in asking for our guidance?” Igneous asked and she took a deep breath, there would be no point lying to them.

“I’ve been researching caves, mining, and geology the last few years in the hopes that my Cutie Mark could come of it. But so far the only thing I have acquired are the dos and don’ts of speleology. I was hoping to work on a rock farm and learn from those who deal with rocks yearly, I might get some insight on whether I am missing something,” when asked if she had any of her reports with her, North’s cheeks darkened, “One or two,” and she dropped one of her bags on the floor and opened it to reveal several notebooks and scrolls.  
“One or two indeed,” the Mrs. Pie said dryly and North looked sheepish.  
They sent her out for work with the sisters while their mother looked over the notes with their father and was partnered with Maud who was the most knowledgeable about rocks.  
“I plan on getting a Rockterate when I’m older,” the filly stated blandly and North tilted her head.  
“Are you interested in a certain type of rock? Or is there a specific area you are hoping to live in and add to the science world?” clearly the filly didn’t expect this kind of question.  
“Few outside our family are interested in such things,”   
“They should be, especially those in Canterlot, where do they think their roads and building materials come from,” North muttered under her breath about the close-mindedness of the nobility while Maud gazed at her from the corner of her eye.  
“You are very interesting,” the blue Pegasus shut her mouth, embarrassed.  
“Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself,”   
“It is no trouble,” they worked for several hours before ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ as the sisters called them, summoned them back inside.  
“I noticed a few irregularities in the notes you took on this one chap’s books, I fear that he mixed sandstone with something else,” North looked dismayed as she looked over the notes.

“Oh, that’s not good,” then she saw some notes written about the Sapphire Dogs and realized they must've read her report on what she knew about Jewel Dogs. But they didn't say anything so she kept quiet and nodded in thanks.   
“I will give you the correct information tomorrow, now it is time to rest,” and they all went to bed.  
It was so strange to see a non-smiling Pinkie Pie, her straight hair caused nightmares to appear and North had to steady herself and try not to show how freaked out she was.   
‘I have to forget about the Psycho Pinkie stories, they don’t exist, Pinkie Pie just has not learned how to smile yet’ she took a deep breath, turning the rock in front of her ninety degrees like the others had done. The rain had flooded the area a bit and they had to make sure all the rocks were accounted for.  
The next two weeks passed like this, North spent ten hours outside (five in the morning, thirty-minute lunch break, then five hours in the afternoon.) Then she would spend several hours studying with one of the adults and learning about the different companies that they had contracts with.

“Some ponies come asking about where to find the best gems,” the distaste in his tone told her how he felt about that, “But we primarily deal with construction companies or toy ones that want to buy rocks for pets,” North had to whistle, inwardly, there were sure a lot of building companies that depended on them.   
She, of course, did the report on the weather and how it affected the rocks, and after several revisions and a review by Mrs. Pie, she sent it by mail to her teacher. She did not want it getting lost when she went through the cave.

At the end of three weeks (two weeks left till she had to return), she was ready to go and the Pie family gave her gifts as several smooth stones, and with Igneous an old book on rock lore that also contained information about not just Jewel Dogs, but a race of ponies called Nocturne. Huh, so there was a fourth pony tribe? She looked up at him but he shook his head,  
“Take heed and do not take unnecessary risks,” he warned her, knowing where she planned to go, and she gave him a salute.  
“I’ll be fine, if there is something I’m sure about, it is how to navigate a cave. Besides, I packed some snacks and a water bottle so I should be good for a few days at least.”   
Despite their concerns, they let her go and watched as she entered the cave with a headlamp strapped to her head.  
“At least she didn’t break Holder’s Bolder,” and that was the only nice thing Limestone had to say about the strange filly.

Applejack tossed and turned in her bed. The noisy nightlife of Manehattan had kept her up these past few nights, and she couldn't wait for morning to come, even if it meant another day in this lonely and foreign city.

Rarity struggled to stop her horn from dragging her further, it had dragged her through forests and strange places the last few days, and she wanted it to stop now!

Twilight was nervous as she waited for her turn in the entrance exam, several ponies went ahead of her, and she saw the looks of those who came out, feeling increasingly nervous at the defeated expressions most of them had. How was she going to get through this?

Fluttershy wished she was anywhere but here, it was her last year school, she had no Cutie Mark which led to much ridicule in her class and those younger than her. Her parents were gone on a trip with her brother and she had insisted on improving her flight, but now she was regretting it.

Rainbow flew, rejoicing in being able to fly as much as she wanted. No more crashing for this pony. She got over that! The grin on her face disappeared when she saw two familiar bullies approaching Fluttershy, who she only knew from this camp and wouldn't be able to defend herself. With a determined nod, she flew down to stop them.

North Wind climbed down from the very tall cliff, using the pick-ax she had stowed away as a hook with a rope tied to it, she wanted to master this part of spelunking without having to use her strange ability to climb down with her hooves. But it would be so much easier if she had fingers! With a sigh she dropped to the ground and turned on the headlight that one of the Pie sisters had given her, too small to fit any of their heads now but was slightly big on hers. Making sure all of her stuff was secure, she recalled the map in her mind and looking at the two paths before her, took the one on the right. Just as she reached another split path, a rumble sounded and startled, she looked up to see stalactites above her, and they weren't attached to the ceiling!

Above the cave in the sky the first sonic rainboom in centuries exploded through the sky, breaking glass in several places and scaring not just the residents of villages, but the animals as well.


	6. Butterflies in the Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own MLP, just North Wind and maybe the Ruby Dogs

Fluttershy eeped as the loud boom echoed through the valley she was in, the animals scattering as a rainbow light passed overhead.  
“Oh dear,” she went to get them out of their hiding spots when she heard a distinct sound, a voice. Fluttershy had always prided herself on her hearing, it was one of the things she was used to using growing up, and she could hear a voice.  
“Help!” to her astonishment it was coming from down below and she pressed her ear against the ground, hearing   
another ‘help’ and her eyes widened.  
“There must be a cave, but,” she looked around, searching for something that might help when she remembered the animals.  
She approached the squirrels in the trees, the birds in the clouds and the animals that hid in the water.  
“Please, can you help me find where the voice is coming from?” the butterflies and squirrels scattered and she kept her ears strained, hoping that she could hear the voice once again.

A squirrel tugged on her tail and chittered, pointing in a different direction, and she followed the animals to an opening just large enough for her to pull herself through.

She entered the dark cave, feeling her stomach tighten with fear, how was she going to find the one who needed her help if she couldn’t see?  
A glow appeared before her and fireflies swarmed around her, forming a line to lead her through.  
“Thank-you,” she was awed at their willingness to help and the fact she was able to understand them. Terror overcame that awe when she heard squeaking and a growl.   
The glow from the fireflies showed something hanging from the ceiling and a large object approaching them. They looked like a bunch of cocoons and the large figure had two points on its head.

“H-hello?” Fluttershy trembled, if it was a monster or a d-dragon, she didn’t know what she was going to do!

Something landed in her hair and she was met with two brown eyes as the face they belonged to chittered at her, and her ears straightened.

“Oh, you heard what was going on and want to help me?” the animal nodded its head and pointed at the large object in front of them which now that they were close enough, the lights showed it to be a bear. Fluttershy might not have been on the surface all that much, but she knew what a bear looked like and now that she thought of it, weren’t the animals attached to the ceiling called ‘bats’?

It led her to what looked to be a rock fall and gasped when she saw the hoof sticking out at the bottom.

“Oh no, oh dear, please help me free her,” the bear grunted, grabbing the larger rocks and moving them to the side while Fluttershy and the bats moved the smaller rocks, the fireflies (since they could not carry anything) providing the light.

When Fluttershy saw the filly she gasped, recognizing her from Cloudsdale and wondering how in Equestria she got down here.  
“We have to get her to a hospital,” blue eyes fluttered open as their owner woke up, a help on her lips when she noticed Fluttershy. While her body had been covered with rocks, the only injury she appeared to have was her back foot which was bleeding and several cuts on her neck and back.

“Who?” the fireflies flew closer as Fluttershy did so as well

“Hello, I heard you crying for help and I asked these animals to help me and they led me to you,” the filly struggled to her feet but the bear saw how panicked Fluttershy was and knelt down, nudging the small filly onto his back.

“That’s nice of you, you are like a rescue pony,” Fluttershy blinked at those words, cheeks warming.

“Rescue pony?”

“Yeah, I mean, a rescue pony, or are they called rangers? Being able to talk to animals and have them help find other ponies is a perfect fit for the job,” Fluttershy smiled to herself, her a rescue pony? She thought speaking to animals was a pretty great talent, but using it to help rescue ponies?  
‘A rescue pony’ she didn’t notice the glow on her flank, lost in her thoughts before a rumbling sound caught her attention.  
“Um, what is that?” the bats, squeaking in alarm, flew ahead, and taking that as a cue, Fluttershy, and the bear broke out into a sprint, just as the cave started shaking and more stalactites fell towards them.

They tried to go the way Fluttershy had earlier but were forced to turn away when they came across a bunch of rocks and strange vines that reached towards them.   
“In here!” Fluttershy entered a cavern that was glowing, flying as hard as she could when a splashing sound was heard and she turned to see the bear staring at a rippling pool with puzzlement, the blue filly gone from his back. He had tried to dodge a vine thrown at him and the weight on his back had disappeared before he could blink.  
“Oh no!” she flew towards the pool, about ready to dive in when the blue filly herself popped out, spluttering and spitting out water.

“Be careful please,” she said giving the bear a deadpan look, climbing out of the freezing water, not seeing their expressions change from worried to shock, “This is a really strange cavern, all the pools are glowing, some sort of algae maybe?” she wondered and Fluttershy gulped.  
“Um,” she winced as those eyes met her, “The pools are not the only ones glowing,” she pointed at the filly who gave her a puzzled look.  
“What do you mean-fireflies don’t glow like that, and I’m out of the pool,” she looked down at herself, giving a yelp at the brightness coming off of it, “Oh no no, tell me this isn’t permanent, I don’t want to be a glow stick,” in a panic her wings flared and she cried out as wind swirled around her, sending her into the air into another pool.  
Fluttershy winced at the sound of another splash as the filly landed into yet another glowing pool.

It took ten seconds for the glowing filly to emerge, this time sporting even more strange additions which she refused to look at.  
“No matter what, do not let me look before we are out of here,” she told Fluttershy firmly who nodded quickly.  
They searched for an exit, being careful to avoid falling into the pools and the odd rocks and vines that came at them.  
Upon coming into another open cavern, the two fillies and animals stared wide-eyed at the jungle of thorns and vines surrounding what looked to be a tree.

“That does not look good,” Fluttershy looked worried for the poor tree and North looked at it in confusion before shaking her head.  
“The first thing we need to do is get out of here, there is nothing we can do for the tree at this moment,” which was the truth.   
But the moment they left the cavern, the image of the tree was gone from their minds, leaving them confused as they stared up at stairs that led to what appeared to be a forest.

Fluttershy flapped alongside the bear as they went up the stairs, wobbling a little but feeling uneasy about being near the cave any longer than she should be.  
North gave a sideways glance at Fluttershy as they went through what she realized to be the Everfree Forest,

‘I didn’t realize it was Fluttershy at first, which was stupid because who else could speak to animals? But what is she doing down here? Is today the day she realized her what her Cutie Mark is?' Against her will, her eyes strayed to the filly’s flank and if she had not been on top of the bear she would have stopped walking, as it was, she froze which the bear noticed. His grunt caught Fluttershy’s attention and she turned to North to ask what was wrong when she noticed the blue filly’s attention was on her, or rather a part of her. Blinking in confusion, she glanced down only to gasp,  
“My Cutie Mark! I got my Cutie Mark,” she was so giddy she didn’t notice the horrified look that crossed North’s attention.  
“T-that’s great,” North erased any negative feelings from her face in order to not tip off the excited yellow colored Pegasus.

‘How did this happen? Am I in a parallel universe after all? Is that why Rainbow Dash is the way she is, or the fact there are so many dark elements among Equestrian society?’ how else can she explain that Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark, the one that emphasized her special talent, that all Bronies knew on sight, was completely different?! She didn't know the plot as thoroughly as they did, but she knew what they're Cutie Marks looked like at least.  
Sure, there was that one fic where Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark was the definition of ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ but this is ridiculous.

“It even includes Mr. Bear,” Fluttershy gave the bear a sweet smile and its cheeks turned red.

For on her flank were the four animals instrumental in helping her save North Wind. There was a blue butterfly with pink crosses in its wings on the left, a pink bat with a blue cross in the middle on the right, the firefly had a blue outline with a yellow glow with a pink cross in the glow, and there was a small pink bear print on the bottom with a blue cross. Their positions formed the cross of the Rescue Ponies and Fluttershy felt her heart soar at the thought. Sure, there were other animals that had helped but these four ones had been the ones to help her find the younger one.

“B-but,” North Wind finally stuttered out and Fluttershy gave her a concerned look,

“Are yo-!” she squeaked in alarm when the filly’s eyes went back into her head and she fainted, “Oh no! We better get her to a hospital quickly!” she didn’t want the filly to have a fever or die from untreated injuries!  
As the two ponies, bear, butterflies, fireflies, and bats traversed through the forest, several other ponies went about their day in different ways.

Applejack greeted her family happily, she should never have thought going to Manehattan would solve all her problems. Sweet Apple Acres was where she belonged, and it is where she will be in her future. Her cutie mark appeared in a glow, showing three red apples which led to another reason to celebrate apart from her return.

Rarity watched the play in front of her in delight, oh the costumes looked so magnificent with the gems added to them. Her teacher seemed to think so because she gave her a delighted grin,  
“Good job Rarity,” she said sincerely, the light from the gem-encrusted costumes shining off of her glasses and a feeling a tingling on her flank, she glanced down.  
“My Cutie Mark!” as she celebrated her Cutie Mark, her teacher gave a soft smile, happy that one of her students could figure out their path for the future after so much frustration and fear that it would never appear.

Pinkie wished that her friend (they were friends right?) North Wind had stayed a day longer because then there would be someone else, she could cheer up. She had never realized what her Pinkie Sense had been telling her before her delight for joy and laughter was found, but now she recognized it telling her that North Wind was someone that needed cheering up.  
“I’ll message her and find out,” she hopped about, happy about her own family enjoying the party, their smiles warming her heart.

Twilight chattered to her parents excitedly about the fact she had been chosen as the princesses’ new student. She had been so scared that she wouldn’t be able to pass the test, but that explosion had activated her magic and she was so happy it worked. She pretended not to see the caution that had appeared in their eyes, after all she had accidentally turned them into plants, and no matter how much it hurt that her parents thought she should request study time in the castle after hours, she would keep going. Her talent was magic and maybe Princess Celestia would teach her how to control it as soon as possible, she did not want to hurt anypony else, thank Celestia that Shining hadn’t been there. Seeing the caution in his eyes would have killed her, and she did not want her big brother to look at her like that at all, more than her parents.

Rainbow Dash was cheering as her parents were called to the flight camp and reporters and a bunch of other ponies appeared. She had performed a Sonic Rainboom, her! There was no way anypony else could pull it off like she could, and her Cutie Mark signified what her destiny was, to be the fastest flyer in all Equestria.  
‘I got my own special abilities that North doesn’t have’ she thought to herself, trying not to feel guilty at how pleased she was that this ability of hers wasn’t feared like her sister’s was. She tried not to think about the distance between them, because there was plenty of time in the future for the two of them to bond. Where they didn’t have to worry about North’s curse and her parents didn’t have to be afraid about North being taken away anymore. She wondered if North, despite everything, would feel prou- Wind Scar's voice reached her ears and she beamed at her uncle, happy he'd taken the time out of his schedule to see her. The pride in his eyes made her swell as he boomed about her being a future Wonderbolt, her parents agreeing right along with him.

Princess Celestia stared at the sky as she thought over the events, several fillies apart from Twilight Sparkle had received their Cutie Marks. Someone would be blind not to see the Sonic Rainboom that went across the sky, she had not seen Pegasus magic like that for centuries! And she had heard from other sources of fillies in Ponyville receiving a Cutie Mark.

‘Does this mean what I think it means?’ she knew the power of the Elements had been cut off from her all those years ago when she had banished Luna. But she had held hope to once again be able to see her sister, Elements or no Elements, and had been searching for ways to take the Nightmare essence from her baby sister.

But now she has a new student, one whose Cutie Mark she had seen once before on a certain tree (she frowned, she had not visited that place in a while. But as soon as she remembered the thought slipped from her again) which might mean soon apart from her sister and Cadance, a new Princess would be coming. There had not been an ascended princess since Cadance who had been a real surprise, in, she frowned, was there ever one who ascended apart from Cadance? Shaking her head, she glanced down to see slitted green eyes as the owner sucked on his tail. That had been a surprise, Dragon Eggs being hatched by magic were rare and if it weren’t for his egg being found in ruins, she would try to find his parents. But what to do with him,  
‘Twilight Sparkle hatched him’ a small voice said, and she hummed in thought. Maybe she could teach Twilight differently than she taught Sunset, starting with responsibility, and how to have a friend.

The glowing pools in the cavern where North and Fluttershy had been slowly lost their light as the day ended. The thorny vines from before had fallen into the matter and whatever magic contained within the waters themselves were absorbed. One by one, the seven pools were drained of their energy, two going faster than the others for certain reasons. Even the vines themselves started withering, the seeds that had sprouted them withering till only a few remained, not to sprout again for another 12-13 years.

Where once a rainbow of lights flashed across the ceiling, there was now darkness, nothing to be left for anypony to find, its purpose was done.

Fluttershy ran through the forest, the friendly bear next to her as she found herself panicking. She needed to find a hospital, but where was there a hospital? She was deep in thought and nearly crashed into a mare just outside the forest.  
"Oh!" the surprised gasp had her looking up, and she eeped, almost withdrawing in herself before realizing what running into someone means.  
"I-i'm sorry, but where's the nearest hospital? My f-friend," she nodded to the nonconscious filly, getting another gasp from the mare.  
"Oh dear, let's get you there," she seemed weary of the bear but he followed behind them sedately through the village, getting stares and such from the residents who did not know how to deal with a bear walking calmly through their town. Upon reaching the hospital, the mare ran to get a doctor while Fluttershy had to wave goodbye to the bear who grunted at her thanks and placed a saddlebag that she hadn't seen before.  
"Oh, is that North Wind's?" the bear huffed and walked back the way they came. Several orderlies took North from where the bear placed her and disappeared down the hall, leaving Fluttershy by herself.  
The filly gulped, feeling herself tremble at all the stares.  
"Are you okay, dear?" the tan mare from before looked concerned, her orange mane in a low ponytail, "Do you have someone we can contact," Fluttershy hid behind her hair.  
"My parents are on a trip," she whispered, the mare coming closer to hear her better, "I was at Flight Camp and fell down," she looked through the saddle bags, wondering if she should message Rainbow Dash, when she pulled out a letter from one of the pockets.  
"If found, return to North Wind, if unavailable contact Lyra Heartstrings in Music Camp at this address," on the back of the letter there was a picture of a unicorn filly and bit her lip. How was she going to contact her?  
"Well until we can get in contact, how about staying at my family's farm till your friend gets better? I promise we don't bite," Fluttershy turned red, not sure what to say, and when the mare leaned forward, she gulped.  
"Ok," she whispered.


	7. Pegasus in the Hospital

Author’s Note: I do not own MLP, just my character, and please ignore lack of accent on Granny Smith’s part, not very good with writing them and can’t find any articles or books on the subject.

Lyra didn’t know what to think when a robin landed on her table, a letter tied to its foot. She knew with North Wind’s numerous ‘quirks’ and desire to remain discreet that she could’ve developed new ways for secret communication. She once stated that she was trying to find a spell for linked journals where what’s written ends up in the other journal and vice versa. Lyra knew that such a thing did exist from stumbling upon Sunset using the journal (she immediately wiped that thought from her mind, no matter how much of a brat the former personal student of Celestia was, her disappearance was still a blow and it was agreed upon not to say anything about her in Twilight Sparkle’s presence.)

Wait, that wasn’t her writing at all.

“Is this for me?” she questioned the bird, feeling a bit stupid since it did have her name, but it merely chirped and held out the letter again. She opened it and read the first sentence, her horn flared and the robin flew off in panic as the instrument in front of Lyra let out a sound not unlike a guitar which shouldn’t happen since it was a violin.

“Miss Heartstrings!” the camping instructor was heading her way and Lyra decided it was in her best interest, to leave.

“Sorry got to go, thanks for the wonderful time!” she ignored the stallion’s sputters, grabbing her bag and everything else and heading for the train station that was only a few miles away.

Unfortunately, her instructor was a unicorn and Lyra found herself lifted up into the air and brought back before an unamused stallion.

“Why are you in a rush?” he demanded, Lyra swallowed.

“I just received a letter saying my friend’s in the hospital,” the aura around her flickered and she almost fell if he hadn’t rushed to grab her again.

“I see,” he was silent for a moment, “How about this, you can leave at the end of the week despite there being two weeks left. I shall get your mother’s permission and we can even refund the bits for the rest of your stay. But I cannot let a filly such as yourself go around unsupervised, so I shall accompany you,” she bit her tongue to prevent the sentence that wanted to come out. Both her and North Wind had been on their own plenty of times and done well, then again North was better at planning than she was and always made sure they had the necessary supplies before going somewhere. Wait, did Lyra even know how to get to Ponyville from here?

“Alright, but is there a way I can send a letter really quickly?” her eyes were wide in a plea and the stallion sighed.

“Very well, to whom am I addressing?” she looked down at the letter once more,

“Uh, Fluttershy? She’s in Ponyville,” her instructor blinked, a confused expression on his face before he cleared it.

“What a coincidence, I plan on moving there within the next few years, now, let us return to our flute lessons,” he adjusted the bow around his neck, “And maybe we’ll add some dancing ones?” her ears flicked up as she hid her smile, this stallion really liked dancing for some reason.

“Yes sir, Sonic Recorder sir,” he turned to trot away and she hummed to herself as she followed him, maybe someday she could convince him to teach her some of his magical spells that revolved around sonic sound of all things.

Though right now he was being very stingy about it.

Fluttershy got out of bed, quietly exiting the room that they were letting her stay in, and made her way out the door to finish up whatever chores needed of her.

The Apple family had been gracious enough to let her stay with them till her parents came to pick her up, and despite their protests she insisted on helping around the farm. Granny Smith, who apparently knew North Wind, agreed and had her use her special talent to take care of any critters that were in hiding or terrorizing the farm. Bright Mac and Buttercup were taking turns between doing chores on the farm and taking Buttercup to the hospital for a check-up. They were trying for a third foal and the Earth mare was excited for a new treatment coming in. Their oldest son Big Mac scared her a bit with his talkative nature, so she did her best to sneak out to the hospital before he tried to catch up to her to talk about the calculations of the labor she’d been saving them. They had a daughter as well but from what she heard Applejack was still in Manehattan trying to find herself.

By the time the sun was peaking over the hills she was out the gate and down the road towards Ponyville hospital, almost bumping into the local mailmare if they hadn’t seen her first.

“S-sorry,” she whispered, hiding behind her mane, the older mare laughed.

“No biggie filly, hm, your Fluttershy right? Got a letter for ya,” eyes widening, Fluttershy accepted the envelope with a quiet thanks and tucked it in the saddlebag on her back which also contained a packed lunch from Granny Smith.

Did her parents already get the letter about her being in Ponyville? Or did Lyra already reply even though should’ve received the letter just yesterday?

Fluttershy didn’t open the letter till she got to North’s room, the younger filly still unconscious with her wing and leg bandaged (something about her wings angered the doctors and it was only upon Granny Smith’s stern reprimand that they didn’t interrogate Fluttershy.) Curling up on the window seat, Fluttershy opened the letter, blinking at the unfamiliar hoof writing, or is it horn writing in this case? Why was it written on music paper?

**_“Dear Fluttershy,_ **

**_Is North okay? Is she awake yet? You didn’t send a message to her parents right? Because in case you didn’t, do not, and I repeat, do not tell them anything, do not even tell Rainbow Dash what happened okay? As far as her parents are concerned she’s off with whatever her Uncle is forcing her to do, and if they find out that she managed to go somewhere else for the whole summer they will flip. Or tell her Uncle, which is a really, really, really, bad idea. Sorry, did not mean to frighten you, I am grateful for everything that you did for North Wind, she’s my best friend and the only one who believes in me in Canterlot, which is kind of sad when she isn’t from Canterlot. Since you’re in Ponyville, and Granny Smith knows that North is here, just tell her it was an incident from one of North’s ventures and she’ll understand. I am going to try to get there as fast as possible without getting in trouble with my camp who will no doubt report to my mom who might make a fuss if she finds out the reason why._ **

**_She does not like North Wind, which is one reason that filly rocks._ **

**_I should be arriving in Ponyville sometime this weekend so don’t worry._ **

**_Do not message her parents, her uncle Wind Scar, or even Rainbow Dash, okay?_ **

**_Love, Lyra_ **

Fluttershy gulped, glad that she hadn’t thought to message Rainbow Dash, what would have happened if she did and it was too late?

Trembling, she tried to calm her nerves by reading one of the animal books that she checked out of the library but found it difficult to focus. She was in Ponyville, a town that she had never been to before, where she knew no one but the unconscious filly on the bed (even then it was barely.) But for some reason, the panic was kept at bay, it felt more peaceful here than it did in Cloudsdale. These ponies didn’t care about whether she could fly or not, and for the most part they were a friendly bunch.

Taking out a new piece of paper from the side table, she wrote a reply to Lyra, finding that the words come easy when it’s not talking to somepony face-to-face.

“Figured you’d be in here,” she eeped, jumping up as Granny Smith entered the room, “Missed mah grandfilly’s return which might be for the best while Big Mac fills her in,” Fluttershy retreated behind her mane a bit as the elderly Apple matriarch took a seat next to North’s bed, eyes not on her but the blue filly whose barrel was barely moving, “Must’ve been pretty scary yesterday, those nurses shouldn’t have panicked you like that,” Fluttershy winced, recalling how on the previous day North ended up flatlining several times despite only her wings and back leg being injured.

Then there was the side-effect of her fall into the strange water; the doctor almost called for emergency quarantine if Nurse Redheart hadn’t been there to reign him in.

After some thought and Fluttershy getting an examination of her own, they decided that the effects were not contagious and just an unfortunate new addition to the strange filly. Attempts to track down her parents were stopped by Granny who in no uncertain terms told them that North’s parents were not to be informed.

After reading Lyra’s letter Fluttershy realized the mare was right, which worried her all the more. What was going on in Rainbow Dash’s family?

“So did that unicorn filly reply yet?” the question broke her from her thoughts and she blushed.

“Um, yes,” she showed the letter, wincing at Granny Smith’s scoff once the other mare had finished it.

“So ‘at’s what these two ‘ounguns were worried about, if that stallion is involved,” her ears twitched.

“Y-you know who Wind Scar is?” Granny shushed her, staring at the door with a furtive look.

“Never know whose listening, but yes, that stallion is just a part of the darkness in Equestria, one that the Princess herself is unaware of because of bureaucracy,” the sneer made her shiver, something the Apple matriarch noticed, “Don’t be scared now, both North Wind and Lyra ‘ave their own way of dealing with him, and he ‘ant avoid the law forever,” with that promising statement, she went to the corner and started knitting, Fluttershy returned to her reply, occasionally glancing at the unconscious filly, trying to see if those eyes were opening or if her breathing stabilized enough to take the oxygen mask off her muzzle.

If nothing else, staying in this town was better than going back to flight camp, something she felt guilty about but put it in the back of her mind.

Several Days Later

With a pounding headache, North found herself unwilling to open her eyes to make the pain worse, but the whispers were increasing and she couldn’t help the groan from escaping.

The whispering ceased and suddenly there was a flash of light that made her flinch,

“She’s awake! Get the Doctor,” the unfamiliar voice faded away as other sounds came to her ears. Something was taken off her mouth and she breathed in the smell of linen and medicine.

Hospital then?

“North?” and there was Lyra, hovering way too close to her face and tears in her eyes.

“L-“ she tried to say and swallowed, grimacing at the dry mouth, immediately a cup of water was floating in front of her and she opened her mouth enough for some to pour in. Looking for the caster she saw the unicorn in the corner, a recorder peeking out of his saddlebags and dark curly hair on his head.

For some reason he looked familiar but North found it difficult to place so she sat up and looked at Lyra.

“How long?” her friend huffed.

“How long?! You’ve been unconscious for four days! Poor Fluttershy has been going out of her mind with worry, not to mention how I hurried here after finding out your solo trip ended up going wrong!” uh-oh, Lyra was mad.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that rockfall to happen,” she cast a glance around the room, “Who else knows I’m here?” Lyra rolled her eyes.

“Just Fluttershy, Granny Smith (your in Ponyville by the way), some of the Apple Family, me, Sonic Recorder over there who is my camp counselor, and Nurse Redheart. The doctors know not to try and contact anyone despite some close calls and your family is still unaware,” then the door opened as two pegasus ponies and a colt appeared, “But I may have forgotten to tell Fluttershy not to tell her own family,” the filly lowered her voice a bit, “Hey Mr. and Mrs. Shy, how was the tour,” she leaned towards North, “They arrived last night.” But it wasn’t adults who answered but the colt that North recognized from Rainbow’s class. His green coat and pale yellow mane were the only things he had in common with his family, the smug smirk on his face however was not. Zephyr Breeze, the bane of her sister’s life who refuses to see that his crush is one-sided.

Of course when he isn’t bothering Rainbow he’s trying to get to her through North who he sees as an easy target.

“Hey there Rainbow Dash’s sister, does she know you’re here?” North’s eyes narrowed at his smug look.

“Does Rainbow Dash know you’re the one that cut her hair and are keeping it in a small bag underneath your pillow?” he blanched, glancing at his parents and Fluttershy who was now glaring at him (wow she didn’t expect that. Seems there were some Fluttershy did not get shy with.)

“Um, I have no idea what your talking about,” North scoffed, taking another sip of her water.

“You also cut the hairs off of Lightning Dust, Ditzy Do, and other fillies in your class and the one above you,” he was stammering, trying to defend himself as his sister came towards him with murder in her eyes.

“Excuse us for a moment,” the two disappeared, leaving their parents standing awkwardly and Granny Smith giving them a look, no doubt that it was Fluttershy who deigned to get mad at him while they had the confused look of parents wondering what was wrong. North knew compared to her own parents they weren’t bad ones, their shy demeanor explained why Fluttershy was shy; but they needed to learn how to deal with their son’s atrocious behavior and at least help Fluttershy with her own confidence issues.

“So, your Fluttershy’s parents huh? Why don’t we leave the two young’uns here to catch up while I talk to you about both of your children,” the two swallowed and followed behind her. Lyra sighed in relief the moment the door closed,

“Good, I was hoping to talk to yo-“ she saw Sonic Recorder was still there, but he merely took out his recorder and started playing it, “Okay,” she climbed on top of the cot, giving a weary glance to Nurse Redheart who was checking the medical equipment and not even looking at them, “Did you find anything?” North took another sip of water as she thought about it.

“Apart from what a Rock Farm contributes to Equestria, not much, they did have some information on some of the other tribes that they’ve been dealing with but that’s it. Although, did you know that there’s a fourth Pony tribe?” the music cut out for a second and Nurse Redheart nearly yanked the tubes out of the IV drip, Lyra just stared at her.

“What?” the unicorn asked, a bit shocked, North smiled.

“Yeah, and let’s just say they have a different sleep cycle and a different set of wings,” she pointed at her own wings for emphasis, her friend’s eyes grew wide.

The subject changed to what Lyra had been doing for the summer, the filly talking excitedly about the different instruments that she got to try and gesturing to her chaperone from time to time.

“He uses music to do different things, but he refuses to teach me,” she pouted at him, he pretended not to see it.

North tilted her head at him, realizing she hadn’t heard him talk at all throughout the time she’s been awake.

“Have I seen you somewhere before?” her question threw him off and he finally spoke,

“Ah no I do not believe so,” his British accent took her aback and while she knew that the accent itself was common in certain parts of Equestria, it just added another piece to the puzzle of this strange stallion.

“Hm,” she continued staring at him, brow furrowed while he avoided her gaze, sweat dripping down his head. Lyra looked between them, a bit put out that she was missing something.

“Well,” Nurse Redheart’s voice took North’s attention, to the relief of the unicorn, the Earth Pony writing something on her clipboard, “You seem to be recovering well, but I must ask that you take care not to do anything with your wing and hoof, they’re still in cast and I do not want anything to happen to make them worse. You will be here for another few days and afterward we will release you into your guardian’s care,” that said she left, Sonic Recorder giving one more nod to Lyra before making his own escape, leaving North huffing when she realized it.

“I don’t think he’s coming back,” Lyra deadpanned, giving her an unamused expression, North coughed.

“Water,” the change in subject did nothing to change the unimpressed look and she tried not to pout at the fact she wouldn’t be able to figure out why the stallion was so familiar.

Had she seen him in her past life, maybe? Nah, that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?

Fluttershy returned with a sullen Zephyr, the colt giving her a disgruntled pout that she felt no guilt for, while his sister went up to her bed.

“Are you feeling any better?” those big blue eyes were staring up at her in worry and North felt herself twitch, nudging a coughing Lyra who was trying to hide her own laughter.

“Yeah, thanks, for getting me out of the cave and taking me to the hospital,” cheeks turning pink, Fluttershy stared at the floor, kicking her left front hoof as she mumbled ‘You’re welcome’. North rubbed the back of her head, not sure how to converse with the filly while Lyra was content to talk about what the two talked about in their letters.

“Having different animals deliver the notes was a new experience, and this filly here has the neatest writing I’d ever seen!” the poor pegasus was turning red from Lyra’s compliments and North, after looking at Lyra, realized she was doing it on purpose.

“Maybe she could give you some tips,” Lyra gaped at her.

“What’s wrong with my writing?” she demanded, “I get top grades in it,” she huffed, North raised an eyebrow.

“You also tend to write your notes on your music paper and also tend to be really informal in the writing, like writing Love at the end to someone you don’t know,” Lyra raised a hoof before turning to Fluttershy who was peeking at them through her bangs.

“Uh, did I do that?” the pegasus filly nodded and Lyra’s face turned pink, “Oh, sorry if it embarrassed you, I don’t know how else to end it,” Fluttershy shook her head.

“It’s fine, i-it d-did not embarrass m-me at all,” North was going to say something when she saw Zephyr staring at the clipboard Nurse Redheart had been writing on, the mare herself was changing out the IV drip and paying no attention to them.

“Hey what does this note mean?” Fluttershy’s shyness disappeared once again once she caught sight of him at the end of North’s bed, “Lights off?” her eyes widened, and Lyra stiffened right next to her as Zephyr went to the light switch. Nurse Redheart turned to see what was going on and joined in their alarm, to North’s confusion.

“Zephyr stop!” but the colt ignored his sister, flicking off the switch and turning the room dark.

Which did not last long.

Eyes twitching, North stared at the glow coming off of her in different shades of blue, raising one hoof to get a closer look.

“Lyra,” her quiet tone caused Lyra to flinch, the filly avoiding her gaze, “Why am I glowing?” Zephyr burst out laughing which soon turned to pleading when he saw his sister approaching with a dark expression and death in her eyes.

“Um, from what the doctors and Fluttershy told me, you fell into some magic water that had a bioluminescent effect? That- well won’t be going away anytime soon. Good news is it isn’t contagious or dangerous or anything!” that did not reassure North at all.

How was she going to hide this from her family let alone Wind Scar?!

Over the next few days she tried to put together a story that would not reveal her actions to Wind Scar, considering she could not even go back to the mines at this point. Fluttershy’s parents took her and Zephyr Breeze back to Cloudsdale, not at all happy that they had not been contacted by flight camp about Fluttershy’s disappearance. Sonic Recorder had already gone back to the camp, and Lyra camped out in North’s room despite protests, having arranged for her uncle to pick her up with a cover story for her mom to prevent suspicion.

On the second to last day she received a package with fish in it (Nurse Redheart confiscated it the moment she opened it, only to return with them cooked and already picked from the bone, a stern warning to eat them carefully) and a note that informed her of Ruffalo’s knowledge on what happened and that they told Wind Scar she’d been in a mine collapse and sent to the nearest private clinic to be treated. The fact the canine also knew of her new ‘ability’ was somewhat surprising, as Lyra herself denied sending him a letter on the account she didn’t know where he was.

The last day her and Lyra ended up in a loud argument that ended in the older filly marching off in a huff and North pulling the covers over her head. Lyra thought Fluttershy should join them in their adventures while North was all for keeping the filly at a distance. She even tried throwing away a letter Fluttershy sent her, but Lyra stopped her.

She tried telling Lyra that Rainbow Dash being Fluttershy’s friend would wind up with her being torn between the two and that it was more important for those two to be friends.

Lyra thought that was stupid and if Rainbow Dash was Fluttershy’s friend, why didn’t she check up on her after it became obvious, she wasn’t at camp anymore? Or how at flight camp she stepped in to stop the bullies when at the school Fluttershy still was getting bullied, but the filly never did anything.

North couldn’t argue with that, but she still knew that it was important for the two to be friends in the future as fellow Element Bearers, something that Lyra might not believe her about. Or if she did the filly would insist on taking it to Princess Celestia and North did not want the alicorn to know of her existence.

“Well this here is a strange sight,” the voice had her sitting up and staring at Gaius, the griffin walking further into the room and taking a spot next to her, “You moping is not good,” with the IV no longer in her she was able to get out of bed and hug the griffin, a bit awkwardly though thanks to the cast.

“You’re here!” Gaius ruffled her mane,

“Course, can’t very well take you up to Cloudsdale by yerself,, now I signed the paperwork and everything, but it’ll take awhile before they are ready to release you. So why don’t you tell Gaius why you were covering your head and your musical friend looked like she was going to cry?” North bit her lip, wincing, she hadn’t meant to make Lyra cry,

Again.

“We just had a disagreement about something is all,” she tried putting it off, but he merely raised an eyebrow and she slumped, “The filly who rescued me from the cave is supposed to be friends with my sister and I can’t explain why, but its important that they stay friends. Something that can’t happen if Fluttershy is also friends with me, and Lyra is mad that I want to keep Fluttershy at a distance,” Lyra somehow bonded with Fluttershy in their letter exchange, and was fascinated by her talent with animals and the way she can be shy and still get angry at her brother at the same time.

“I see, and there is no way for her to be friends with both you and your sister,” her ears flattened.

“No, because sooner or later she would be forced to choose, and I don’t want her to be hurt because of it. Above all else her and Rainbow Dash being friends is much more important, and I’m not going to get in the way of that,” instead of him answering, the door burst open and there was Lyra **_and Fluttershy_**?!

Both were crying, North straightened, giving the griffin an alarmed look that he ignored in favor of stepping aside for both fillies to glomp her to the ground.

“You idiot!” Lyra was squeezing her neck, “No matter how you think it’s important, it shouldn’t stop you from becoming friends with someone just because of Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy’s head was buried in her barrel, her pink hair tied back in two ponytails,

“I-i can be friends with both of you! I promise not to be a b-bad friend,” North was flailing, trying to get up, but it was kind of difficult.

“Fluttershy, it’s dangerous to be my friend, if my uncl-“ the filly tightened her squeeze and North let out a wheeze, sending a pleading look at Gaius who wasn’t staring at them anymore but at the elderly mare in the doorway.

“Peaches?” his whisper caught the other fillies’ attention as Granny huffed.

“Don’t use that name no more, and Ah’d appreciate it if you not call me again, at least not in front of my family,” she had a strange expression on her face, “What happened to never approaching this pony-infested town again?” Gaius actually looked stricken and the fillies didn’t need to be told to leave the room, North being helped by the other two to be led out. Under the watchful eye of Nurse Redheart they ended up in the cafeteria, North eating some of the leftover fish while trying to ignore the other two’s stares.

“Why is it important for Rainbow Dash and I to be friends?” Fluttershy’s question almost made her choke and she quickly drank some water to wash it down.

“Well, uh, so, um, why are you back in Ponyville?” Lyra glared at her, eyes red and puffy.

“To invite you, well us, to her cutiecencera,” Fluttershy hid behind her hair a bit a she took out an invitation with her Cutie Mark on it to North.

“It’s tomorrow,” she whispered, North staring at the invitation, quickly adding, “My parents are going to throw it here in Ponyville as thanks for taking me in after my fall, they don’t want to do it in Cloudsdale. They’re going to throw the party at Sweet Apple Acres, Granny Smith was the one who suggested it, since they already celebrated the cutieceneara of her granddaughter Applejack, and a filly named Rarity is having hers at one of the fancy restaurants in town, at least, that’s what I heard,” Lyra blinked.

“Huh, you know I got an invitation to Twilight Sparkle’s cutiecenera, apparently hers appeared while she was taking the entrance test to Celestia’s school which was,” her eyes widened, “The same day you had the accident,” North swallowed as Fluttershy’s eyes widened as well, before an uncomfortable look appeared on her face.

“Rainbow Dash got her Cutie Mark as well, she, well she had her Cutiecenera yesterday,” it took a moment for that sentence to sink in, Lyra scowled while North shrugged.

“Oh, well at least I don’t have to worry about a party then,” her voice shook a bit and she inwardly cursed, why was she bothered about Rainbow having her Cutiecenera without her? It has been made very clear to her that she wasn’t a real part of the family.

So why did her chest hurt?

“Oh, that’s a bummer,” the new voice had all of them jumping, “Here I was planning to invite you to my Cutiecenera but instead I should be throwing a cheer you up party!” Pinkie Pie threw her hooves into the air, confetti sprinkling down around her.

“Pinkie-“ she spotted the rest of the Pie family, “All of you? How’d you,” then she couldn’t breathe under the tight grip of the Earth filly, who for some reason smelled like a mix between bubblegum and cotton candy when just a few weeks ago she didn’t.

“Wwwweellll, I had the sense that you got hurt and would need cheering up, and Maud found the cave you went to, and when we saw the cave-in and blood on the floor we thought the worse! Then Maud saw a trail and realized somepony must’ve rescued you. Soooooo! We decided to find the nearest village, and wow it took a bit because for some reason no one wanted to tell us if you were here or not! But then we got a letter from a Granny Smith apologizing about the mix-up and that it was alright for us to know where you were, hello I’m Pinkie Pie!” she directed this to Lyra and Fluttershy who was looking at a paling North in concern.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie, stop choking North Wind this instant,” Pinkie let go and North let in a large gulp of air, rubbing the back of her head.

“Oopsie, forgot my own strength for a moment,” she was still beaming though, and it took North a couple moments to get herself together.

“It’s good to see you too Pinkie Pie, but what about your rock farm?” Limestone scoffed.

“That’s what I said,” Cloudy Quartz shushed her, approaching North and giving her a once-over,

“I see thou are alright, we apologize for arriving so late, and for our daughter’s suadden excitement, do you know where Granny Smith is? We would like to greet her and express our gratitude,” North told them the room number and their other daughters went with them, leaving Pinkie who went back to hugging North Wind.

“So, Pinkie Pie right? Are you saying you got your Cutie Mark as well?” the filly grinned

“Yep! There was a big boom and a rainbow that made me smile and want to make others smile! I threw a party and got my family to smile, then this appeared!” she pointed at the balloons on her flank, Fluttershy’s eyes widening.

“Wait, there was a boom and a rainbow that scared the animals and caused me to discover my talent in talking with them, before I heard North’s cries for help and rescued her,” Lyra stared at North who gulped, avoiding her gaze.

“You know, I heard Applejack saying something about a rainbow pointing her home, and I’m sure if I ask this Rarity and Twilight, they might say something similar. And _Rainbow_ Dash has something to do with this, right? Fluttershy I don’t suppose you can tell us how she got her Cutie Mark?” Fluttershy tapped her hooves together, brow furrowed.

“S-she performed a Sonic Ra-“ her eyes widened, “inboom,” she trailed off, realization dawning.

“Hey, looks like they’re changing to lunch and putting out the cookies,” North tried to escape but Lyra’s magic held her in place.

“North GlowWorm Wind,” North gave her a deadpan look.

“Really?” but Lyra was still staring at her, Pinkie and Fluttershy doing the same, though the latter at least had the sense of looking apologetic about it.

They should’ve just stayed in the room and endured whatever the awkward thing was between Gaius and Granny Smith.

How was she going to get out of this?!


	8. Dragon in the Egg

Chapter 7 Dragon in the Egg

Lyra lowered the book on Predictions and Prophecies, North wilting under her stare while a pale Fluttershy and flat maned Pinkie Pie were staring at the book with wide eyes.

“W-we’re s-supposed to save E-equestria from E-eternal night?! Nightmare Moon is **_real?_**!” Fluttershy looked very alarmed and Lyra was glad that North managed to get them to wait a month before talking about this. She made them swear a Pinkie Promise, something that actually startled Pinkie since it was an off-shoot of a Pie promise that her family took very seriously.

Apparently, Pinkie had yet to come up with it and North facehooved when she was told that. So apart from holding a Cutiecenera celebration for both Pinkie and Fluttershy (the Pie and Apple families were very awkward, and the former were rather glad to go back to their Rock farm, even if they did promise to arrange a letter exchange with Granny Smith.) Gaius took North to Cloudsdale in a balloon separately from Fluttershy and her own parents while Lyra hopped on a train to Canterlot to get ready for school.

They all promised to meet up in the planetarium after Lyra had her uncle put a bunch of silencing and privacy spells on it, which actually took a whole month because he was pretty busy with his own duties. North surprised Fluttershy by ending up in her class after taking a placement exam, something that ended up getting North in trouble with her own parents and Rainbow Dash who hadn’t even known she was doing it. Any attempts to move her back to the previous grade was stopped by the headteacher who was ecstatic at finally having a student who would break the record for youngest graduate in Cloudsdale. He had an ongoing rivalry with someone in Las Pegasus who had a graduate at age 11, one year earlier, and the fact North would be graduating at age 9 made him giddy. Plus, her report on how weather affected rocks in different ways was so fresh compared to the boring reports that the other students did through the years. It didn’t stop other students from harassing North Wind, but she paid them no mind and continued producing good enough grades that the teacher accepted her request to become Fluttershy’s permanent desk partner on account of the filly being the only ‘mature’ one in their class.

She used this as an added excuse to visit Fluttershy’s house and to do homework with the older filly who didn’t seem all that upset at having a filly three years younger than her helping her. If North also used this time to show Fluttershy books about animals, no one knew about it.

But now here they were, in the basement of the planetarium with shredded training dummies and three out of four with shocked expressions.

“Nightmare Moon is r-real?” Pinkie was shivering, the eleven-year-old didn’t look at all peppy at the moment. Which was understandable, compared to her future self she was just a filly who recently learned how to broaden her emotional range.

“North! Shouldn’t we go to Princess Celestia about this? Warn her?” North gave her a look.

“She wrote that prophecy, she knows,” was the deadpan before the blue filly sighed, “And I’m not even sure whether my information is accurate, there are so many things different from what I expected. Maybe there are other Elements, or maybe she has a different plan to take care of Nightmare Moon. I only have a vague memory of what happened,” Lyra huffed, still not at all placated.

“And when did you plan on telling us, telling me that you had a past life where we were fictional?! And you were a human!” North raised an eyebrow and Lyra trailed off, recalling one of their conversations where she had asked how North knew about humans and the other joked about having been one in her previous life, “Wait, technically you did, how was I supposed to know?!” North was snarky on a good day, some things she said seemed too impossible to happen.

“Look, I never planned on telling anyone my knowledge because there’s no way for me to prove it, if I say anything about the future then they’ll just think I put together information from the prophecies. Or they might accuse me of being a villain, but at least now you know why I was trying to keep you away Fluttershy,” the yellow pegasus frowned, color returning.

“Well I don’t care,” the statement made North blink as the filly’s shoulders straightened and her wings flared in agitation, “Even if Rainbow Dash and I are supposed to Element Bearers, and Pinkie as well, I don’t see why that means I cannot be friends with you; besides I’m a bit peeved with Rainbow at the moment,” she said this last part in a low voice.

“Why?” North asked, Fluttershy withdrew into herself once she saw that she was the sole center of attention, but still answered.

“She told me to stay away from you,” the words were said in a dark tone, “That you were dangerous and it was for the best,” Lyra scowled.

“Seriously? She ignores North Wind and goes out of her way to avoid her, but she’s even trying to make sure North doesn’t have any friends? Wait, she never approached me,” Lyra wondered if she should be offended at that.

“That’s just not nice, why would she do that?” Pinkie looked shocked, but it was North that grabbed their attention as the pegasus filly was still and staring at the floor.

But there was no surprise or shock on her face, but a sad understanding.

“North,” Lyra’s voice was quiet, “What else is there?” she looked at the training around them, noting the cuts in the walls and the way some of the dummies were stitched back together or still in pieces on the ground, “Does it have anything to do with this?” she gestured at the scene, North closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out before replying.

“Blessing of the Wind,” her voice carried in the empty room, Lyra blinking while Pinkie and Fluttershy gasped.

“B-but, I thought that was a myth,” Fluttershy’s statement was overshadowed by Pinkie’s.

“You have a Blessing too?!” North’s head lifted up, all of them staring at Pinkie Pie who stared back, “What?” Lyra growled.

“Can someone explain please?” she had no idea what they were talking about, North however was staring at Pinkie.

“Too? What do you mean by that?” Pinkie rubbed the back of her head.

“Oh, the Pie family has always had a touch of the Blessing of the Earth, it’s hereditary and each of us get our own kind when we get our Cutie Mark. Well technically, we have some of it that gives us feelings here and there, but we don’t understand what it is till we discover our destiny. On top of her sense Maud found out that she can talk to rocks! It was really cool, my Pinkie sense I’m still trying to find out though,” then she saw the way Lyra was looking at her and giggled, “Oopsie, okay, you know that Earth Ponies have this connection with the ground? Well there are some of us who also have the Blessing of the Earth that goes way beyond, some of us have the affinity to become like the ground, while others have the ability to tell what is going to happen before it does.” Fluttershy stepped forward, eyes on North Wind, realization dawning.

“That’s not the only Blessing, there is also the Blessing of Water, Fire, and Wind,” North flinched, “But there are tales of the Wind being more dangerous than even Fire with every generation, even capable of not just controlling tornadoes by one’s own magic, but slicing through anything as well. Rainbow Dash’s ear,” North closed her eyes, not wanting to admit it but not wanting to lie either.

“It was an accident,” the whisper made Lyra’s stomach drop, and when Fluttershy touched the filly’s shoulder the rest of the story poured out, from the time the ability activated to having her wings bound and put to work in the mines. Her interactions with the Ruby Dogs and other workers, and even the part about Corn Husker.

Pinkie Pie ended up needing a bucket, and Lyra felt terror at certain points, especially as any shyness disappeared from Fluttershy whose face kept getting darker and darker.

“I’m sorry, I understand if you don’t want to-“ all three glomped North to the ground.

“It’s not your fault,” Pinkie backed up Fluttershy’s fierce declaration, tears falling from both of their eyes.

“Yeah, she’s right, you warned that big meanie and he still continued, the Blessing of the Elements become very fierce if they feel someone is targeting their chosen. If someone were to try to figure out my Pinkie sense for the wrong reasons, they’ll end up in a lot of accidents, and that’s with the Earth’s Blessing spread out! But from what I can tell, your Blessing is way way stronger, I wonder why?” she pondered this, North sighed.

“Probably because a lot of bearers returned the Blessing,” Pinkie Pie fell over, sputtering.

“Returned?” she squeaked, “Why! That’s not good at all! Returning a Blessing?!” she peered at North, “You” her mane completely flattened, “You want to do that too,” Fluttershy gasped.

“North?” the youngest among them sighed.

“You call it a Blessing, but all I see is a curse with a thirst for blood, and it takes all of my energy to keep it contained and not hurt anyone. I’m close to finding out the location, but there is still a few things missing,” Lyra smacked the back of her head, “Ow! Lyra,” Lyra narrowed her eyes.

“If I had a newspaper, I would be smacking you till it was torn up, this is why you don’t fly is it? Why you don’t even open your wings, and why you don’t want to go to Princess Celestia either?” she’d known North had looked up something about Princess Celestia that caused her to avoid going near the palace whenever possible.

“By proclamation of the Princess all who bear the Blessing of the Wind should be taken into custody,” North stated flatly, “I looked up names of those who were taken into custody and there’s no report on what happened to them afterwards,” it became silent for a moment as they all pondered this before Lyra sighed.

“Alright, seeing as we cannot persuade you, will you at least promise to be more open about what is going on, and promise to tell us everything?” North clearly didn’t want to, but at the trio of puppy-dog eyes directed towards her, she gave in and made a Pinkie Promise to do so. Something that Pinkie elaborated on is tied to her Pinkie Sense and would tell her if it was immediately broken.

“This explains so much from the show,” North had muttered before Pinkie Pie tried using the Promise to get her to reveal things about the future, though Fluttershy put a stop to that.

“Like she said earlier, things are different now, and I think we should continue going on as if we do not know what the future is. I-if that’s alright with everyone,” the other three agreed and the subject was changed to what to do for lunch.

After that, Pinkie made a trip up every other weekend since she didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the train (even if her parents were glad that her new exuberance was being directed towards something else than throwing parties every day.) Fluttershy visited as well, though only when North did since she didn’t like taking trips by herself yet and the chance of running into strangers. The filly was trying to figure out what she wanted to do for the future with her Cutie Mark and was researching the Rangers since there were no books in Cloudsdale on the subject. Lyra started her own personal research project and looked up the different Blessings that she’d known nothing about before. Which she admitted to being annoyed about.

North on the other hoof, tried to continue her research but was finding it difficult to find any peace at home. Her parents were very unhappy that skipped grades without telling them and that she didn’t tell them about her personal project. Rainbow Dash was jealous and frustrated because there were fillies and colts at school making fun of her for having a nerdy sister. Not that her sister tried to confront her or anything, rather she decided to take a different approach to get back at North.

A week before the winter holidays, North came to the house, only to find all the scrolls she’d been working on in the attic in a huge pile and her displeased parents with a scowling Wind Scar.

“So, you plan on emancipating yourself and studying rocks huh?” North blanched, inwardly cursing the fact that she forgot to take those scrolls back to the planetarium. She’d just finished the second set of exams and while her teacher said she could skip spring semester, she was going to stay till Fluttershy was done.

“T-that’s-“ he slapped her with one of his wings, sending her to the ground while her parents did nothing but watch.

“You said you were researching the guard, was that a lie?” Bow Hothoof was unhappy and had the nerve to look hurt and Windy Whistles was frowning, giving her a disapproving look.

North saw Rainbow peeking from behind the house with that griffin friend of hers who was smirking and realized that her own sister had gone into the attic to get the scrolls when before not even their parents wanted to go in there.

“I think that you should be taught a lesson in what happens when you deceive your family,” Wind Scar flew up and bucked a cloud, sending a bolt of lightning into her scrolls and setting them on fire.

“No!” she ran to grab them but was backwinged into a different cloud, it felt like she’d been hit by an oversized hammer.

“This is for the best, sweetie,” Windy Whistles went up to her and tried to side hug her but North smacked her hoof away.

“Why is it you only pay attention when I don’t fit your stupid mold, and stop acting like you actually care,” North backed away and ran, Windy calling her and she could hear Wind Scar flying after her.

She did not want to get caught by him.

She dove through one of the patches of clouds and into a small tunnel that existed throughout Cloudsdale, patching up the cloud behind her and randomly going through different tunnels till she came to a bigger spot that had snacks and water bottles.

It was a project she gave herself when she wasn’t visiting Lyra and was forced to stay in the house. She needed a spot in Cloudsdale that no one else knew about that didn’t have that choking feel to it.

Then she accidentally fell in a cloud that was thinner and discovered a small tunnel that someone had dug underneath the school leading towards the snack shed. Through trial and error she expanded the tunnel till it went through all of Cloudsdale and made several emergency staches throughout it. She even used her sense in the wind to tell where exits were (though that’s as far as she got) and if someone else was in the tunnels.

Once she was done, she left the tunnels alone till she would actually need them, and so that no one would find out about them.

Good thing she did.

For an entire week there was no sign from North Wind, searches were sent out but no one could get a hold of her. Fluttershy, upon finding out what happened, wasn’t very happy with Rainbow who tried to search her room for the elusive filly. The rainbow maned pegasus tried to put up yet another case for why Fluttershy should stop being friends with North Wind, only for Fluttershy to Stare at her and state that of the two it was Fluttershy who actually knew North Wind.

She then threw Rainbow out (well Stared at her till Rainbow left) and told her parents that she wanted to spend Hearth’s Warming in Canterlot with Lyra’s family. They agreed and despite it being so close to the holiday, managed to book a room at one of the hotels big enough for Lyra and Pinkie (who had managed to persuade her family into seeing the Hearth’s Warming Play and see a geology exhibition that was on display with rocks and artifacts that had existed before Equestria.) to spend the night. Zephyr was forced to spend the time with his parents who had been talking with Granny Smith and were learning how to tell the colt no, much to his shock.

They ended up destroying the hairs he got from the girls and sat him down for a very long talk, Granny Smith on hoof just in case and gave him a very thorough lecture about why that kind of behavior was wrong in the first place. Granny Smith offered to have him work on the farm to learn the meaning of hard work, but his parents put that idea to the side to his relief.

Lyra had told them that Bow Hothoof tried to have her home searched and even tried to tell her that she was to no longer hang out with North Wind.

Instead of getting her mom (who didn’t need yet another excuse to ban the two of them meeting), she got her Uncle whose growing influence in Canterlot society made Bow stand down. Not having an actual good reason to forbade North without making himself look like a tribalist, and the uncomfortable questions about why she had run away in the first place caused him to retreat. Rainbow was with him and ended up with her hair being turned red to represent her betrayal and mistreatment of North.

(Though if Lyra were to be asked she would’ve stated it was to represent a Hearth’s Warming prank.)

Pinkie Pie luckily or not did not run into them, though she did huddle with Lyra to come up with a perfect prank for Rainbow Dash and Gilda for being meany-pants. Fluttershy, tellingly didn’t stop them.

“I mean, if Mom and Dad destroyed my party supplies I spent months gathering, I would be very upset,” Pinkie Pie was saying, while her family was supportive of her interest in parties, they did tell her to keep the parties to a minimum and said she had to finish all of her chores first.

“Yeah, it sucks when one’s parents tries to do stuff like that, and they found out she was going to emancipate herself too, and she’d been planning to do that without their knowledge,” they were getting ready to attend the play and Fluttershy was drawing a picture with Marble Pie whose quiet nature was calming. Limestone was pouting in the corner, having wanted to stay home to watch the Rock Farm while Maud was looking over a brochure of the geology exhibit. Granny Smith would’ve been there but relatives from the other parts of Equestria were visiting and she was busy putting together a feast for them.

“Do you think North’s okay?” Fluttershy’s sudden question caught their attention, the two paused in their prank planning to think about it.

“She’s fine, North’s been preparing Plan Run-away for years, she’s either with Ruffalo, Gaius, or probably still in Cloudsdale hidden somewhere, or maybe in the Canterlot Library sleeping in a hidden room somewhere.”

“Or she’s at the window waiting to be let in,” Pinkie Pie piped up, pointing a hoof at the window where a shivering North was knocking on the window. Fluttershy burst into action, opening the window and bringing her in, Lyra throwing a blanket around her and Pinkie Pie fetching some hot cocoa.

“Thanks, wasn’t sure if you could hear me through the thick windows,” Maud handed her a scarf which she wrapped around her neck and Fluttershy walked with her to the fireplace where she spent several moments warming up.

“Where did you go? No one knew where you were,” North sipped the cocoa, licking the whip cream off of her nose.

“Under Cloudsdale,” she explained, “I created tunnels under there and spent the entire time with limited supplies,” Lyra raised a hoof, “And yes I created a personal bathroom out of clouds,” the hoof went down.

Limestone and Marble shared a look before the former rolled her eyes and muttered about going to get washed up for the play and the latter hm’d before following after her.

“So what are we going to do? I mean, if you go to the play, where Princess Celestia is by the way, your dad or my mom might see you and tell your family, and Wind Scar. Are you going to stay in the hotel room?” North shook her head.

“Nah, I’ve seen the Hearth’s Warming Play before, Lyra’s probably told you I’ve spent every Hearth’s Warming here the past few years. I actually have a different plan,” she laid out an old blueprint, “The caves beneath Canterlot castle,” the three gasped.

“No one’s been down there in years,” Lyra protested, “What are you going there for? Why don’t’ we just go to the observatory?” North scowled.

“When was the last time you went there?” Lyra blinked, confused and worried.

“Um, I think a few days ago, why?” North showed them a picture of a pile of scrolls being burned.

“Bow went into the planetarium with your Mom’s permission and burned all my notes on the cave systems we went to, luckily he couldn’t get into the other rooms though,” Lyra stared at the picture, entire expression blank.

“Some of those scrolls contained pictures of us,” her horn was glowing, “And one of those was the song about humans that you North wrote down from one of the cave pictures that we had, a cave we can’t return to because it was flooded the next day,” items around them were shaking and Pinkie Pie disappeared before returning with a gingerbread house.

“Want to eat the house?” she tried to calm Lyra down, Fluttershy shot North a look who sighed.

“Lyra, I still remember the song,” the glow died down a bit, “I’ll write it down again, and this time we can change the locks, or if the exploration bears fruit, find a new hangout underneath the castle.” Maud stepped in as the magic winked out, Lyra still scowling but somewhat pacified.

“I’ll tell the adults that you three are not in the mood for the play,” North opened her mouth, “Going alone is not wise,” that got her unhappy looks from her friends.

“You weren’t planning on going down there by yourself, were you?” Pinkie Pie asked, North winced.

“You should spend the night with your families,” she tried, Lyra waved a hoof.

“Not in the mood after finding out what my Mom did,” Fluttershy nodded.

“Mom and Dad will understand,” and if it meant she didn’t have to deal with Zephyr Breeze, all the better.

“Eh, my family is already overwhelmed with being in the new city, if I’m still back to open presents it should be okay, we even did our Hearth’s Warming rock dolls before we left!” North stared at her.  
“Rock dolls?” her interest made Lyra smack her own forehead with her hoof.

“North!” their friend looked sheepish.

They all bundled up, North borrowing one of Marble’s hats and a complete winter outfit from Lyra. The moment the play started they disappeared through several alleys and towards the end of Canterlot where North led them into a narrow opening.

“Found this when I was exploring once, didn’t want to go any further before finding out a layout of some kind for it,” they all squeezed through, North trying not to look disgruntled at the glowing from her body, the other three stayed silent.

Pinkie Pie zoomed from one end of the tunnel to the other, oohing and ahing with her pith helmet nearly falling off her head till Fluttershy went over to tighten it.

“This is so fun! There’s a mine and cave on the rock farm but I know every single tunnel and they’re not nearly as exciting as this!” she hopped around them, “I can’t wait to go cave exploring with you guys in other parts of Equestria, I mean, when you can that is,” Lyra and North shared looks, it has been a while since they went caving.

“Hm, we could revisit some of the caves to show you two the ropes, but technically speaking, we’ve been to every single one in Equestria, we’ll have to look farther out, although,” she thought about it, “Technically the Bad Lands are part of Equestria but we never went there,” North huffed, avoiding a sharp rock and leading them down a separate tunnel.

“Because it’s actually a settlement that I just found out belongs to the Nocturne tribe,” Fluttershy froze and Pinkie gasped.

“Nocturne? You mean the vampire ponies that drink your blood and haunt the night?” North tapped her mane, pushing her head back a bit.

“That is just malicious gossip meant to hurt their reputation, you can’t really say anything about Nocturne ponies till you see them for yourself,” Pinkie’s ears went back, looking chastised.

“Oh, sorry,” then she lit up, “Do you think they like parties?!” the question had Lyra giggling while North sighed and Fluttershy hid her own smile.

“You’ll have to go up to one and ask them Pinkie Pie,” then her and Fluttershy stopped, ears perked up, a frown growing on her face matched by Fluttershy’s growing dismay.

“There’s an animal in trouble,” she gasped, North put a hoof to her mouth to signal quiet and carefully walked down the path, tightening the clothes around her and covering up as much as her glowing coat as possible.

Not hearing what they heard, Lyra and Pinkie were forced to be quiet as Fluttershy and North kept their ears forward.

Then they reached a round opening with rocks jutting out around it, and the sound of shouting and growls below.

North crouched to the floor and inched forward, the others following her lead and peaking over the pointy rocks.

Author's Note: I do not own MLP, just North my character

Fluttershy covered her mouth while Lyra and Pinkie stared at the scene in horror, North’s mouth was twisted into a grim frown.

Ponies in the Royal Guard armor were marching around, some with whips they used to punish unruly animals in their cages. There were a lot of cages spread out, some containing animals like a phoenix or a fire salamander with its flames being put out every few seconds by a guard shooting water at it from his horn. A chimera was in a different cage, arguing amongst it’s three heads and there was a griffin chained against the wall, roaring at some of the guards who were guarding a nest of eggs and poking it with spears that made the griffin even angrier. Lyra recognized them as griffin eggs and felt sick, what was going on?

North nudged her shoulder and pointed at a pair of eggs in the middle of the room, one orange with stripes on it while another was dark green with diamonds on it.

‘Dragon eggs?!’ did Princess Celestia know about this place.

Then everything got worse.

“Move it! If these items are still here by the time the plays over, I will make sure every single one of you are retired without severance pay!” North stiffened and Lyra stared at the blue pegasus stallion standing right in the middle,

If Wind Scar spotted them, but the stallion turned and exited the room, leaving the guard ponies by themselves and the few Jewel dogs that were there who were from the Diamond Dogs if their collars were anything to be judged by.

The four retreated and went into a separate spot where Fluttershy bit her lip and Pinkie Pie looked like she was restraining herself.

“We’re not leaving those poor creatures like that, are we?” Fluttershy asked, trembling from fear and anxiety.

“But how will we get them out without being discovered?” Lyra furiously whispered, Pinkie Pie looked at North.  
“Windy?” her question and nickname snapped North Wind form her thoughts who gave her a strange look at the nickname but was now back with them.

“Pinkie Pie, how many party supplies do you have on you? And Fluttershy, do you hear any animals, insects or anything in the tunnels?” she turned to Lyra, “Lyra, do you know the Bringer of Darkness spell? I can deal with knocking everyone out, but I’m going to need a better cover, even my hair glows,” Pinkie was already taking out a bunch of party poppers and streamers from her hair and Fluttershy was speaking softly to some spiders that she had found. Lyra closed her eyes and sighed,

“Alright, I can even do a muting spell,” hopefully that was enough.


	9. Pegasus on the Run

Author's Note: I do not own MLP

Surprisingly the plan worked and while the guards and canines lay unconscious, one having run screaming into a wall from the spiders covering him and another knocked himself from being shocked by the party poppers and knocking his head against a cart. Pinkie Pie even produced some smoke bombs to cover their scent by stinking the place up. The rest North took care of with carefully placed hits while Lyra unlocked all the cages. The griffin they freed went straight towards the eggs and carried them off through one of the tunnels without a backwards glance.

Lyra kept silent at North’s look, helping her put the dragon eggs in a saddle bag and stripping the guards of their money but not their weapons (she heard about a tracing spell on them and didn’t want to risk it.) 

Fluttershy calmed down the Chimera and pointed it in the direction of an exit, giving them some cheese and snacks she’d packed for the trip to satisfy them (one made a crack about eating them but was stopped by its siblings.) Pinkie Pie then insisted on leading them out and took them through a dizzying trail of tunnels till they ended up in the basement beneath the observatory. After a few months of knowing her, and a rudimentary knowledge on the Blessing of the Earth, the others didn’t question how she did it and just sat there to rest.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” Lyra said, stunned that they had gotten away, before panic set in, “Wait, what if they track the eggs to us? What if that griffin gets caught and tells them! (Can’t believe she left without saying thank-you!) W-what if we actually interrupted something Princess Celestia was doing and she sets out to arrest us,” a spider was thrown into her face and she spent the next few minutes rolling around on the ground screaming as it clung to her muzzle.

“North Wind!” Fluttershy scolded the filly who looked deadpan at the unicorn.

“Lyra, while there are many things about Princess Celestia that we don’t know, I’m pretty sure smuggling isn’t one of them. Especially griffins, and griffin and dragon eggs; you can stop screaming now,” Lyra got up, panting and the spider fell off her face to the ground before scurrying over to Fluttershy who picked it up and started cooing at it.

“I will get you for this,” she vowed, North rolled her eyes and brought out the dragon eggs, staring down at them.

“How about making sure the door to this basement is invisible first, Pinkie Pie is anyone coming?” the Earth filly stood on all four hooves and stared at the ceiling for a moment before shaking her head.

“Nope!” she joined Fluttershy in cooing at the spider, North shook her head and stared at the eggs.

They couldn’t hide them forever, and North knew for a fact that dragon eggs needed constant warmth in order to hatch. Otherwise they stay in stasis and refuse to hatch until they get the necessary spark.

Like what happened with Twilight and Spike.

But if she tried asking Lyra to hatch them, what will they do with two baby dragons that will have the same coloring as their eggs?

She started pacing back and forth, considering her options and discarding them as soon as she thought about the repercussions if they were discovered early.

Klugetown? No, they’ll end up as dragon slaves and she can’t live with herself if that happened. Chief Ruffalo or Gaius? No, that wouldn’t work either, they still need to root out the spies and she doubted the fact they wanted to look after dragon eggs. 

Go to the Dragon Lands? But would that work and could she go straight there? Wait, wasn’t there a Dragontown in Fillydelphia, she could head there first.

Still there would be a lockdown and whichever guards were under Wind Scar would be under red alert for the eggs, and no doubt when she goes back to the house he’ll have her searched. She couldn’t go completely under the grid lest he suspects her of being behind the theft. For a moment she wished for a cellphone to have taken an instant picture of the operation, providing evidence of what Wind Scar is doing.

So she would have to wait till summer, or the end of summer, to figure out a way to get to Fillydelphia so she could hand the eggs over to whichever dragon was the leader there. But she would also need to leave a trail away from the city, but what- her eyes fell on a flyer peeking out from one of the books on the one bookshelf and a thought came to her.

“That’s it!” Pinkie and Fluttershy jumped while Lyra came back from warding the door.

“What’s it?” North grabbed the flyer and showed it to them.

“12 Month Training for Rangers, get experience in twelve different environments and catch the eyes of sponsors and organizations. Ranger?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened while Lyra took the flyer for herself, Pinkie peeking over her shoulder to get a better look at it.

“When did this even exist,” the unicorn filly asked in disbelief, “A twelve-month training course? Is that even long enough for Fluttershy to learn everything she needs to, and isn’t there an age limit?”

“Nope!” North said in a matter of fact tone, “You know that Fluttershy has had difficulty finding a college she wants to attend.”    
“Um, I was going to do the General Course at the Cloudsdale Academy and maybe a General degree at the college?” she squeaked when North marched up to her.

“Fluttershy, you shake every time you talk about going to that place,” she pointed at the older filly’s legs which were indeed shaking, “We know your terrified of going there, I know its common for many ponies to go to secondary general education before they start specialization schooling in their Cutie Marks. But tell me honestly, do you want to go to high school with the same ponies you’ve been going to school with right now?” the yellow Pegasus shuddered as she shook her head rapidly.

“But what else is she going to do, technically you can start specialization school at age 15, and her parents don’t have the money to send her to a different school,” Pinkie nodded at Lyra’s statement.

“I’ve been homeschooled till now, but I’ve been thinking about attending a party school once I graduate,” she pouted, “If I can find one that is.” North patted her on the shoulder.

“Fluttershy won’t need to go to a different school, that’s why I’m showing you three this flyer,” she lied down, prompting them to do so as well, before continuing, “Those who will finish this course will be able to be accepted into an organization that will further train them. There are even apprenticeships available for those interested, they’ve been planning this kind of course for years and have just got the necessary sponsors and funding for it. There will be twelve master Rangers in a variety of Rescue situations from all over Equestria, and we will be traveling to different parts of Equestria each month,” Lyra raised an eyebrow.

“We?” she asked dryly, North coughed.

“Well yes, Fluttershy will need an assistant to keep track of her schedule and finances, and as her sponsor Trade Star approved it, there should be no problem,” Pinkie tilted her head.

“Whose Trade Star,” North blinked innocently at them.

“The pony that was gracious enough to lend her financial assistance of course,” Lyra’s mouth dropped.

“North Wind, please tell me you did not create false papers and a fake identity for this.”

“Of course not,” North looked insulted, and Lyra almost breathed in relief when she added, “I created that identity years ago with the help of Gaius and Chief Ruffalo so that I didn’t need to keep all my personal wealth in Cloudsdale.” Lyra looked like she wanted to strangle her while Fluttershy had wide eyes.

“Your paying for it?” her voice was small and North turned to her with a reassuring smile, knowing that the yellow Pegasus would need some convincing.

“Fluttershy, you’ve been having trouble finding scholarships because of general stupidity,” more than once while North was over she saw rejection letters from the Cloudsdale school board and other pegasus financial programs; Fluttershy also had red eyes from crying some of those times.

“I wouldn’t say-” FLuttershy tried protesting but North wasn’t having it.

“Fluttershy, do you want to be a Ranger or not?” Fluttershy stared at her hooves,

“Yes,” she mumbled, North leaned against her, Pinkie Pie doing the same and Lyra in front of her.

“Don’t worry, I know how to set a budget for the entire year, and if we go over, I have several back up plans, besides, I might get my Cutie Mark traveling around Equestria with you, and at least you won’t be going around by yourself,” Fluttershy felt a bit better at that.

“Hey! What about Pinkie and I,” Lyra protested, Pinkie nodding, North gave them a look.

“You two have school,” she reminded them, Pinkie drooped in disappointment but Lyra wasn’t deterred.

“But it doesn’t mean we can’t go with you in the summer, and I’m saying this now, but it is kind of freaky that you have your own account set up and no one knows. How’d that even work?” she demanded.

“Lots of careful planning,” was the reply, Lyra twitched.

“That’s not an answer,” she pointed out,

“I know,” the smug look made her snap and she charged at the pegasus, the two of them wrestling around till Pinkie Pie hopped on top with a wee and Fluttershy watched with a worried look. She always got anxious when Lyra and North start fighting, but after the first few times she realized it wasn’t out of malicious intentions or anything. Pinkie Pie joined in because she thought it was fun and Fluttershy knew they were silently offering to let her do it as well, but she was still getting used to the idea of fighting for fun.

Once morning came, the four separated and the moment break was over North and Fluttershy returned to Cloudsdale separately, the former reluctantly and the latter a bit nervous about having to return to school. Lyra promised to look after the eggs and be a warning system while Pinkie promised to keep in touch in case anything happens. The Earth filly was going to see about finishing her schooling up early because she wanted to go with them, though she stated that she might end up doing something different instead.

North was grounded the moment she came home, even Rainbow tried to threaten her away from Fluttershy, stating that she didn’t want North hurting her. North just gave her a silent stare before slamming her door shut and climbing out the window and jumping out into the cloud below.

Things got even more tense as time went on, North was forced to go straight home to her room and not even allowed to go to Canterlot with Bow Hothoof at all. Every night her parents tried to extol the virtues of a Cloudsdale Pegasus but she drowned them out, even ignoring them when they tried to appeal to her as her parents and that what they were doing was for her own good.

Closer to graduation time things came to a head when her mom scolded her for being so ungrateful for everything Wind Scar had done for her.

North felt her control snap.

“Ungrateful?” she whispered, “Ungrateful?! You call binding my wings and throwing me into a mine to pay off his debt ungrateful,” she glared at her mom with hatred, wind building up and saw the mare flinch, but there was no surprise at her statement, nothing, “Wind Scar is nothing but a gambling, low-scum monster who should be thrown into Tartarus or a volcano, and your no better than him,” she ran out, almost bumping into Rainbow who looked angry.

“He was trying to help you gain control, there’s nothing wrong with hard work,” North scoffed, ignoring the breaking of her heart at the fact Rainbow knew the truth of her summers as well.

“You have no idea what happened in those mines, and how about you bind your own wings for weeks on end before telling me that,” Rainbow stopped her from continuing, steam coming from the filly’s ears.

“You walk around like a martyr, but I know the truth, what you did to that stallion when he dared to get in your way,” so Rainbow knew that as well, huh? Looks like Wind Scar doesn’t hide his actions from her at all.

“So I should’ve let him toy with me?” she glared at Rainbow who stepped back, “Let him take his revenge on Wind Scar out on me because I look like him? Is that what I should’ve done?! Be raped and take it with grace because heaven forbid I deserve it because of my stupid curse,” the angry look on Rainbow disappeared, the filly looking startled.

“Wait, ra-” North pushed passed her and ran out, ignoring any calls to get her back and going to a certain part of the tunnel where she kept an emergency escape vehicle. Their class had recently done Cloud-Kart racing and she kept hers afterwards, adding a few of her own touches just in case and telling her parents that the teacher had confiscated it along with the others. 

Moments later there was the whir of a blade as her CLoud Kart shot off the edge of Cloudsdale, wings on either side nearly the same size as her cart and small blades underneath each one to help keep it balanced. 

It couldn’t be in the air all that long but it gave her enough distance, and with Pinkie’s help she managed to put some explosive power to make it go even further.

She didn’t even try to understand how the filly managed that. 

Upon seeing her destination she released the parachute, slowing down her ride and landing non too gently onto the grass.

A streak of pink bowled her over, sending her out of the kart as the two of them went rolling down the hill.

“Windy!” North laughed as Pinkie Pie beamed down at her.

“What are you doing in Ponyville Pinkie?” the Earth filly helped her up, still beaming.

“My family wanted to come for cider season, and I’m taking baking lessons from Mr. and Mrs. Cake at Sugarcube corner! Granny Smith is also asking Mom and Dad about maybe building a barn from rocks to make it more stable. They’ve been exchanging letters since summer and Mom and Dad actually leave the farm more to socialize,” North hummed, a bit surprised at that, Granny Smith and the Pie parents getting along was the last thing she expected. For some reason Granny Smith ended up being the go to for not just Pinkie’s parents, but Fluttershy’s as well, the pegasus learning how to be more assertive, slowly, but it was working. They were trying to get their son interested in things and away from Rainbow Dash, once Granny sat them down and told them that the crush was not mutual, at all. Fluttershy put her own effort in and bought books with North’s help that had the slightest chance of pointing Zephyr down a certain path. 

Hopefully it does end up working, because otherwise North wasn’t sure how long Fluttershy could deal with her brother without wanting to kill him.

“So why are you here Windy?” North let Pinkie lead her into town, the long line of ponies telling her where everyone was, although it seemed the Pie family already got theirs and were sipping them at a table outside Sugarcube Corner with plates of desserts before them.

“North Wind, tis good to see you again,” Igneous Rock gave her a nod which she returned, Cloudy Quartz was nibbling a daisy sandwich and letting Marble have a sip of her cider. The silent filly giving her a nod and small smile. Limestone was messing around with several different rocks, pouring different liquids over them while Maud read from a book, on rocks.

Pinkie sat with her at another table, munching on a cookie as North told her what had happened. She had to stop her friend from getting a hot-air balloon and going to Cloudsdale, telling her that so far no one knew of their association with one another and she didn’t want Pinkie getting in trouble. This younger Pinkie was surprisingly quicker to anger than she remembered, then again, Pinkie was still learning how to handle different emotions, as was her family who had been living a certain way for a while now. Her sister Limestone seemed to feel anger rather easily, though North guessed it was just her personality.

Since school was still in session for another few weeks ( North already had her graduation filed and everything), and Pinkie Pie got permission from her family to stay in Ponyville for a bit; North spent that time walking around with Pinkie and showing her the sights. She even introduced the filly to some of her favorite book series and they ended up at a book signing with Daring Do. North had started reading the series before her time in the mines and started collecting the books when she could. Daring Do’s character reminded North Wind of both the grown-up Rainbow Dash and Indiana Jones, and she found herself wanting to read more about the mare and her adventures. She kept the series in Lyra’s room, since the series had nothing to do with humans so the filly’s mom didn’t care whether they were there or not. 

When they weren’t doing that Pinkie Pie was throwing parties left and right, using her allowance from the farm and whatever she earned helping out Mr. and Mrs. Cake to buy the supplies. North only asked her once about charging for the parties but Pinkie Pie didn’t feel all that good about doing it.

“Besides, how can I charge ponies when I’m still new at throwing parties? That won’t make them smile,” North sighed, she had a point but North didn’t want Pinkie using up all her money and needing to work constantly to throw parties that she never charged anyone for. 

Once the school year did end, the pink pony took her to Sugarcube Corner (North had gone there once a week and Pinkie Pie had been busy each time, this was the first time they were both free together.) and Mrs. Cake made her the usual cherry muffin with spiced cinnamon frosting, sprinkled paprika, and dark chocolate peanut butter filling. The baker had made a lot of unique combinations over the years for her and kept part of the pantry filled with spice filled sweets. North technically was the only one to eat those kinds of combinations, though for some reason it was catching on with other customers who were curious to try it for themselves.

Pinkie Pie was no exception. 

“Ooh, that looks good,” Pinkie Pie asked for one as well and even spooned some of the chili pepper sauce to dip the cupcake into. North tried to warn her, knowing that Pinkie had grown up on a rock farm with a limited variety of food and might get sick from trying such a combination so early. 

But the filly bit into the cupcake with gusto and even drank the chili hot and pineapple mixed smoothie that North ordered with the cupcakes. Mrs. Cake actually looked relieved that someone else wanted the other half of the smoothie, apparently she just put the rest of it in a cup and put it out as a sample or kept it reserved for when North next came to town. North didn’t mind that part, she felt a bit bad for her strange requests but the mare liked the challenge of new combinations and didn’t say no when she asked.

“Really?” the deadpan tone made her look up at Lyra who was staring at their food in disgust, “Pinkie Pie, please tell me she forced you into eating that,” the Earth filly shook her head.

“Nope! This is really good! Want one? Mrs. Cake made twelve!” Lyra looked at Fluttershy next to her who was biting her lip, no doubt preventing a smile.

“Yeah no, I’m going to get a vanilla with mint icing, let’s go Fluttershy, leave these weirdos to their spicy-sweet cupcakes.” the pegasus giggled but followed Lyra in. North and Pinkie Pie shared a look before shrugging and downing a second cupcake each. 

Once the rest of their quartet got their ‘normal’ cupcakes, the four headed towards Sweet Apple Acres where North had been building something with Big Mac and Bright Mac’s supervision. Applejack was missing, again, no doubt with her mom who was pregnant with a third foal after the treatment went through.

Something bugged North Wind whenever she went to Sweet Apple Acres, but she could never figure it out, like something was blocking her mind about the place.

Not like it was something big, right?

Fluttershy hid behind Lyra while Big Mac talked about the dimensions and calculations of whatever it was they were going to see.

Lyra felt the numbers swimming around her head and wished she knew a silencing spell to block out the very talkative colt’s voice as he went on, and on, and on, and on.

And  **_on._ **

The only ones following him were Pinkie whose smile didn’t waver one bit and North who was probably used to it since she visited the farm more than anyone else.

“Right here it is,” Bright Mac opened the door, gesturing to Big Mac to help him and together the two removed the very heavy looking tarp.

Fluttershy blinked rapidly while Pinkie Pie let out an excited gasp.

Lyra groaned.

“North! You went overboard,” North looked smug as she placed a hoof on the cart, or rather caravan, the apple wood painted in the colors of pink and blue with the images of different animals. There was a hatch that if pushed would open up the top to reveal the sun or moonlight, but would make the cart not as heavy as it could be, though the top was still durable enough for tough weather. There was an underside for luggage and the like and there were seats that could fit four ponies facing one another that could be turned into a bed with very soft cushions Granny Smith helped her make. There was even an ice chest packed with food for a month and fresh juice and water that would last just as long. 

There were other features but North decided not to reveal them just yet, she didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Fluttershy sniffed and North looked at the tears in her eyes with alarm before falling to the ground as the other hugged her with great force.

“Ok, since Fluttershy likes it I won’t say anything, but how do you expect to be able to pull that?” North got up, patting a blushing Fluttershy’s mane before attaching the harness to her barrell and with little effort pulled it out.

Lyra’s eye twitched at the display of strength and the smug look on her friend’s face.

“And there’s a second harness in case someone else wants to pull as well, I actually wanted to do two stories but they stopped me,” she had the gall to pout and Lyra banged her head on the nearest wall rather than try to even strangle her. 

“I know through these past few years Mom said not to say anything, but I would like to know what exactly your planning on doing with this,” Bright Mac asked, glancing at Big Mac, the scrawny colt yet to become the size of his father and was currently looking at the schematics for the cart, or it was more of a carriage, “Mac here decided he wanted to build his own and has been bugging me to create something similar,” he scratched the back of his head, “Then there’s the matter of you paying,” he held up a bag filled with bits, “Where’d you get this?” North cringed, her and her friends sharing awkward looks.

“Now wait just a darn minute,” Granny Smith stomped towards them, “Bright Mac what did I say?” the stallion opened his mouth but she stopped him, “It’s good enough that I know isn’t it? Now git! We still need to harvest the fields,” her son lowered his head, gesturing for Big Mac to follow and they disappeared. Granny Smith rolled her eyes and spat on the ground, giving the cart a once-over and lightly prodding it, “You sure picked up carpentry quick, I expect updates, even if its some secretive way, and don’t you worry none about that uncle of yours tracing anything to us. We have our own ways and this town is protected and closely watched by the princess herself for some weird reason,” Pinkie bit her lip and Fluttershy’s wings shook, but the two managed to not give anything away. Lyra had her own poker face on, years of practice at noble parties and North just kept hers blank.

Then she decided to be cheeky,

“Got it,” she smirked, “Peaches,” the mare sputtered, especially when Pinkie Pie and Lyra saluted and called her Peaches as well.

“Why you cheeky,” the four scattered, avoiding Granny’s hooves and they all left the farm at separate exits.

“Do you think she’s mad?” Fluttershy asked, a bit worried, once they gathered together in the town library, the librarian giving them cautious looks that they ignored.

“It’s fine, teasing Granny Smith is fun, and I can’t tease Gaius because he’ll end up giving me octopus instead of regular fish, and that’s difficult for me to cook,” Fluttershy gulped, shivering at the thought.

“Okay,” Lyra stared at the calendar.

“So we’re really doing this then?” she asked, nervous now that after a few months of planning the day was now here.

“Yep, I’m going to head back to the Rock Farm for a bit, get things ready,” North gave the party filly a dry look.

“And earn some more allowance?” Pinkie stuck out her tongue at her, causing Lyra to laugh.

“As far as Mom’s concerned, Sonic Recorder is throwing his own special camp that I’ll be attending for the summer,” she drooped, “Unfortunately I’m unable to graduate early, its impossible at Celestia’s School, and without a Cutie Mark I can’t make a case for transferring,” it was kind of frustrating that she didn’t have one after all the stuff she’s mastered with North’s help. In another world she might have focused on practicing the lyre tell she got her Cutie Mark, but in this one her friendship with North made her spread her interest over different areas. Not to mention North’s own frustration with getting her Cutie Mark made Lyra consider what she wanted for hers.

“I really didn’t have to hide anything from Mom and Dad apart from you three’s involvement, but I’ve been reading up on all kinds of animals, and what a Ranger is,” Fluttershy tapped her hooves nervously, “I even put together all my allowance and got everything on the list the program sent me when I applied. They said having an assistant is fine, but that they are not allowed to help me with any training, just to take notes and other stuff. Though I don’t know what they are going to think with three assistants,” North shrugged, a smile on her lips.

“I have a plan for that,” Lyra sighed.

“Course you do,” North Wind always did.


	10. Fillies in the Desert

Author’s Note: I do not own MLP, just North Wind 

Las Pegasus was the center of entertainment throughout Equestria, from casinos to night shows, from wild rides going through hotels to conventions and concerts held at the biggest hotels throughout the land. Sure, Manehatten had Bridleway, but most of those shows end up in this party city anyways.

Of course travelers, most of whom were ponies, lost their entire fortunes and were forced to work to earn enough bits to get home, but that didn’t stop others from trying to make their own fortunes. 

It was also where a certain stallion was stated to visit rather frequently, so covers were paramount when one wanted to visit the city.

Fluttershy wished for such a cover as she watched the crowd heading towards the Las Pegasus Convention Center, gulping as her resolve started to waver. 

She couldn’t go in there! All those ponies looked tough and that one had a shark tooth necklace! Why did she think she could be a Ranger? She was getting scared of just a crowd, and she wanted to get in a profession that interacted with strangers everytime?

She was wasting everyone’s time- a passing pony accidentally bumped into her and she apologized at his angry mutter about holding up the path. Then she realized something got knocked loose on the vest North got for her and paused as she caught sight of the whistle that her friends had made for her. North had carved it while Lyra put in the holes and Pinkie Pie painted it to give it a cheerful look. It was supposed to imitate different animals based on what holes she covered, and it resembled a penguin rather than the hawk North tried going for. Something that bugged the filly but Fluttershy loved it all the same.

She stared at it for a few seconds before putting it back in her vest and resuming the trek into the hotel. She wasn’t going to let her friends down, not after everything they did to help her, and she did not want that Wind Scar meany to ruin things either.

A Ranger is what she got her Cutie Mark for, and a Ranger she is going to be.

Her pace quickened and she took one step into the hotel, seeing the larger crowd but not even pausing as she headed towards the exhibition hall, the tag on her vest visible and letting her in without any trouble.

Across the street, two ponies watched from the cart, the cover and drapes falling from it covering their forms.

“See, told you she wouldn’t let her fears get the best of her,” Lyra rolled her eyes at North’s statement.

“Yeah, but I still think we should’ve walked in there with her, give some more support?” the younger (in body not mind) gave her a look.

“But then she wouldn’t be able to go in there on her own, and I can’t meet up with her yet, remember? And your going to be late for your own appointment, Agape Flare” Lyra twitched, staring down at her chili red fur and the now pink and red colors of her mane.

She hated this part of the plan.

“Your lucky this is only temporary,” she hissed at the golden furred filly who had her own long, green mane in several braids, instead of cutting it like she made Lyra do. 

Golden Lotus raised an eyebrow, pointing at the vest covering her body, and the invisible binding on her wings, which gave ‘Agape’ pause.

Right, part of the plan was Golden pretending to be an Earth filly, which meant she had to wear a binding the whole time (thankfully a cosmetic and not an actual one.) The filly went so far as to design ‘Cutie Marks’ for both covers, just in case. Agape Flare had fire swirling through and around a heart-shaped ocarina (her protest about a fake Cutie Mark died down when North reminded her that she did, indeed, know how to use an ocarina.) 

Golden Lotus herself had a golden lotus embedded onto what looked like a fancy carriage, having to do with her talent in carpentry and gold embellishments. Plus the fact it was a carriage would make sure no one would question how she could pull it.

Sometimes her friend’s plans scared Lyra on a different level, but this one kind of took the cake.

“So when are you going in? Orientation starts in two hours,” Golden showed her a permit that wouldn’t let her go through the bigger doors (the cart wouldn’t fit through the front) till thirty minutes before the orientation began.

“They’re doing a security check and everything, so before then,” she nodded to Lyra who sighed.

“I’ll take the special cargo with me on a tour of Las Pegasus,” which was stupid consideri- but then again, this was meant to throw anyone off their path, wasn’t it?

Muddy the trail and make it difficult in case anyone suspected them of the theft. North- sorry Golden, even packed a ton of trivial things that were going to throw anyone off.

At least, that’s what she declared to the rest of their quartet when they asked why she was packing a certain trunk into the cart. 

After an hour, Golden started pulling the cart towards the back of the exhibition hall and as she passed a bush, the fountain at a different hotel erupted, looking more than a geyser and turning into different colors. While everyone was looking, Golden ‘as well’, no one noticed the red furred filly jumping out of the cart and disappearing into the hedge along the sidewalk. Golden peered at the fountain before shrugging and resuming her trot to the designated area.

Might as well be close to the loading area when they’re allowed in. Too bad there wasn’t an earlier time, she was really interested in seeing the exhibitions of the Search and Rescue convention.

It would have been really interesting.

Fluttershy accepted the free brochure with a soft thanks and added it to her saddlebag, which was already filled with a bunch of other free giveaways from the other booths. So far it had been fun, she got to see what the different options were for those interested in Rescue, got free food samples (that trail mix looked especially good), and thanks to some advice from North, avoided the ‘timeshare’ booths.

She also avoided the Royal Guard booth, though made sure it wasn’t obvious, she recognized one of the stallions from Hearth’s Warming and did not want to risk getting recognized. There were those at the booths who saw her tag declaring her as a potential trainee in the Ranger program and did not bother her as much, seeing as she was already in one of the programs. Then she came to a booth where there was a St. Bernard with a first aid kit around his neck and had a nice conversation about what he did.

Then his owner joined in.

“You can understand him?” Fluttershy jumped and stared at the Earth pony with wide eyes. His white coat and brown mane nearly blended in with his own booth and she felt embarrassed at not greeting him first.

“Um, yes,” she tapped the floor, feeling her shyness kick in and he raised a hoof.

“Didn’t mean to startle you, it’s just rare to run into somepony of your talents,” he saw her tag and smiled.

“Ranger program huh? Wish that existed when I was younger, but I’m quite happy at my occupation,” she looked at his booth, the snow theme and pictures giving her an idea.

“Snow Rescue?” he smiled, and she felt herself relaxing a bit at the calm aura he was emitting.

“Yeah, been rescuing stragglers and unfortunate souls from avalanches, their own accidents, and Comet here is my partner. I’m also the sheriff of my town, but its small enough that I can do both jobs. I believe its one of the stops in this twelve month training session, hope to see you there,” she thanked him, petted Comet with his permission, and went on her way. She found a few more booths where animals were used in in rescue operations, a mare offered her information about training animals in rescue operations once she found out Fluttershy’s talent. 

“Would be good if the animals actually knew what we were training them for instead of making them guessing all the time with treats,” Fluttershy giggled as the monkey on her head leant over, staring into her eyes and asked if she had any bananas or peanut butter, and if she could tell the mare that the stallion at the other booth had a rare bug that it wanted to eat and if she could get it for him.

“Sorry, I don’t,” she turned to the mare and whispered about what the monkey told her. The mare shot a glance at the booth with a frown, thanked her, and when Fluttershy disappeared to a different booth, she caught sight of the mare confronting the stallion and her monkey lifting a box with a bug that had several other vendors charge the sweating stallion.

“Oh dear,” she didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

“Huh, and here I expected Agape to make a big scene,” the voice had her twitching at the unfamiliarity of it, but when she turned to the speaker, she blinked at them.

“Miss Fluttershy I presume,” knowing that was a quote somehow, she gave Golden Lotus an unamused look, the filly giving her a cheeky grin, “I got the cart like Trade Star wanted, do you want me to get anything here before orientation? There’s a surplus store down there,” Fluttershy thought about it. She had gotten everything on the list, but found her options limited for some ‘suggestions’ that the program had.

“Well, a few more iodine pills wouldn’t hurt, and since the first stop is a desert I was thinking of some sunglasses and maybe one of those mini-fans you put around your neck?” she trailed off, wondering if it was silly, but Golden saluted to her and went to the booth, no one batting an eye at the Earth filly pulling what looks like a heavy cart.

Then again, if the filly’s wings were visible, there would actually be reactions. Fluttershy tried not to think about how her friend changed her voice as well and went into the orientation hall, taking a seat near the back and swallowing at the others that were there. Some looked like they were a decade older than her and others looked like they finished high school first before coming here.

Was she the only twelve-year-old?

“Um, hi, is this seat taken?” the stripes on the colt were a surprise, and his Cutie Mark looked like a circle with a line through it and two dots on the top and bottom facing each from each other.

“N-no,” Golden would probably not detach from the cart, so Fluttershy felt that she wouldn’t mind.

“That’s good, I wasn’t sure if any of the others would let me join them,” he sighed with relief as he took the seat, “I’m Bao Kilima,” Fluttershy blinked before giving her own name and they sat for a moment watching the rest of the trainees arrive.

“Got what you needed Miss Fluttershy,” Golden appeared, handing her a pair of sunglasses with a cord that she could hang around her neck, before looking at Bao, “Oh a Zebra, hi I’m Golden Lotus, Miss Fluttershy’s assistant,” he gave a shy smile.

“Bao Kilima, not many know I’m a Zebra at first sight,” he rubbed the back of his head, Golden shrugged.

“I read a lot, though,” she tilted her head, “I thought Zebras spoke in rhyme,” Bao winced.

“When I was small I did, but let’s just say I had reason to learn how to speak without it,” Golden accepted that explanation, glancing towards the front and taking out a notepad which she started writing in.

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s a Zebra?” Fluttershy whispered to him, he didn’t mind and told her about his homeland, or at least his grandfather’s, he actually hailed from the Badlands at a small village and was looking to get experience and become a Ranger in order to gain more opportunities for himself and his kin.

“There’s not many out there, planting out there is a nightmare but we’re still persevering, I’m hoping to perfect my potion abilities a-” a bell interrupted him and they turned to the front where twelve ponies were seated, all of them looking at one pony who was standing at the podium. His wings were slightly open and his Cutie Mark was a shield with a cross in the middle.

“Greetings, my name is Cross Shield and I welcome you all to the first ever Ranger Training Year-Long Seminar. My fellows and I would like to thank you as well for giving this program a chance to turn you-” he gave them an overview of the program, the same information on the pamphlet. 

The twelve trainers that were mentioned on the flyer were each introduced, representing different environments that they specialized in along with their apprentices who were there to help manage all the trainees, which turned out to be fifty. The whittling down part was unsettling, if a trainee was seen to have little potential in the field, they would kindly but firmly be dropped from the program to try again another time or find a different career.

“I don’t want to ruin someone's chances,” Fluttershy looked devastated as they went to the first training area on the schedule, the San Palomino Desert which wasn’t all that far from Las Pegasus. Bao had looked scared as well, but given her a brief good luck before going to get some last minute supplies.

Agape Flare would meet up with Golden in two weeks once she was done with her own errands, and Fluttershy was a bit concerned, she did not want to leave Golden by herself. Some of the trainees had their own assistants, but it did not stop them from eyeing the cart Golden was pulling.

At some point along the trail the entire group separated, each one going to an assigned area where one of the trainers would meet with them. To Fluttershy’s dismay that meant Bao and her weren’t in the same group, and she could only watch as the colt went off with a not so nice looking group. Each trainer had four trainees to look after, in some cases they had five, and while Fluttershy was disappointed that Bao wasn’t with her, she tried to console herself on the fact she was in a group of four.

While Golden set up camp, Fluttershy gathered her courage and tried to make conversation with the three others in her group.

It didn’t go well. One of them, a white coated earth colt a couple years older, gave her and Golden a frosty glare before turning away. Wilting, Fluttershy next went to the sole unicorn of the group, but was met with similar derision as the pink unicorn dismissed her as a weakling. The fourth member was a pegasus who had a similar mindset to the unicorn, and knew Fluttershy from tales at flight camp.

“Great, well at least I don’t have to worry about Cluttershy being a threat,” there was the crash of cooking implements and Fluttershy fought off the despair to go restrain Golden Lotus who had a pan in her hooves and was eyeing the stallion with a dark promise in her eyes that actually made im take a step back before he remembered himself and sneered at her.

“Golden, you can’t,” Fluttershy whispered to her urgently, “Please?” Golden calmed down, but it didn’t stop her from glaring at the colt.

“The first snake you come across, ask if it wants to wrap around your neck, and make sure its poisonous,” the yellow pegasus sighed, but couldn’t help the smile on her lips. 

“Alright,” it’s not like she was afraid of snakes, so it was a simple request, and if it made No- Golden feel better she would do it.

They were there for two hours, Fluttershy settled down to read books on the desert, when the assigned trainer met them, an Earth pony with a shawl wrapped around her head and green eyes eyeing them.

“I am Amethyst Storm, you four come with me, but the assistant stays here,” Fluttershy gulped and waved to Golden before following after her group, keeping some distance from them and trying to tell herself it would get better.

Despite the fact there was no one for miles, North didn’t relax and kept the disguise up. She mapped everything within a two-mile radius during the first two weeks, where certain plants and animals were, and keeping track of the weather patterns. At one point she had found some cacti that weren’t poisonous and marked them as emergency food and water supply before returning to her spot. 

During the third week, Agape Flare finally joined her and together they found the ocean, spending several nights exploring along the shore line, finding different sea caves that they hadn’t been too before, collecting all the seashells they could find. Golden set up different fishing traps (not wanting to eat all their food) and whatever she caught was grilled or set out in the sun to dry. The meals were simple as Golden’s talent when it came to cooking only came to meat dishes and preparation, for some reason she couldn’t make simple dishes.

The fourth week was spent relaxing, with Golden telling Agape different stories she could remember from her old world and Agape telling her what happened to her in Las Pegasus at the different concerts and performances. She even regaled her of diving through a mosh pit and grabbing the drumstick one of the band members had thrown. The manic look in her eye had Golden eyeing her in worry, but she calmed down in time to help with dinner. 

The day Fluttershy returned, Agape was recovering from an ill-gotten attempt at cactus (Golden had warned her to look for the blue marked cacti and stay away from the green ones, but she had forgotten which was which.) Golden was going over all of her notes and arranging the pictures she had printed (Agape’s reaction to her turning the cart into a dark room ended with her chasing Golden into the ocean.) 

“You two were out here the whole time?” Amethyst blinked at them, a bit surprised at their healthy state, though having been informed of Agape’s presence (cover of which she was Golden’s sister that was watching her) she didn’t bat an eyelid at the unicorn. The trainees were in similar states of surprise, though Fluttershy wasn’t, the snake around her neck uncoiled and slithered to one of the fish that Golden Harvest placed in a small dish, hissing thanks to her before opening its mouth and swallowing the fish whole.

Golden smiled and poured some water for it to drink as well before turning to Amethyst,

“Yep, took a bit to adjust,” the trainer took a moment to think about the bizarre scene of the filly being unafraid of a rattlesnake and chuckled.

“Huh, glad to know your friends are adaptable as you are, though your gift with animals was a sight to behold when you had to rescue these other trainees,” with that parting shot she left, the others following behind her, not looking as confident as they had a month before, leaving Fluttershy to be questioned by her friends on what the mare had meant.


	11. Pegasus in Canterlot Gardens

Author’s Note: I do not own MLP

Two Weeks into the Program

The crane held over the planetarium swung back, ready to demolish the empty building and turn the lot into another estate. 

Though the filly standing in front of it was making things rather difficult.

“Look, I have a busy schedule today, I’m sorry you loved hanging out with your friends here, but we were paid to tear it down and tear it down we shall,” Pinkie Pie glowered at the construction pony, ears flat. She was lucky her Pinkie Sense had told her to come to Canterlot, otherwise she might’ve been too late.

This was the HAA (Human Appreciation Association), the place where she became part of a group and had friends who didn’t think she was weird, and she would not let them tear it down.

One of them tried to grab her in his magic but she dodged it, to his shock, and produced a key that she used to unlock the chain blocking entrance into the building. Before they could stop her she jumped in and shoved gum into the locks and a bunch of objects in front of the doors before disappearing into the planetarium.

They couldn’t tear it down when someone was inside, right?

With a groan the stallion tried to open the door, but found his magic unable to grasp the gum for some reason.

“Come on! We need to get that filly out, now,” he stomped his hoof, before a soft voice caught his attention.

“Um, E-excuse us, what are you doing?” the pegasus family that appeared looked at the construction with confusion, “Why are you tearing down this building?” the colt was looking at the equipment with awe and he made a mental note to monitor him.

“Because we were hired to, the owner made it quite clear she wanted this place gone,” there was a cleared throat.

“Funny, and here I thought I held the deed to this place,” with a roll of his eyes, he turned, yet again to give the stallion who spoke a piece of his mind.

Then he saw him and gulped.

“F-fancy Pants, y-you own this p-place?” the rising socialite did not look happy.

“Yes I do, and I remember rather clearly gifting it to my niece as a hideout, I do not remember giving permission for its demolition,” he did not stomp his hoof, but his eyes narrowed and Meteor Strike swallowed.

This is not going to look good on his record, especially if his boss finds out he accepted a bribe to tear down this place.

He was going to get fired, wasn’t he?

Once the entire crew left, Fancy rubbed his head, looking rather annoyed, before he spoke to the Shy family.

“I do apologize about our interrupted lunch, I’ve been wanting to speak to the family of at least one of my niece’s friends, and yet,” Mr. Shy shook his head.

“Not your fault, our Fluttershy told us about this planetarium and it being the group’s meet-up, we owe a lot to those three fillies for helping her get out of her shell, bit by bit,” then he frowned, “But why would someone tear down this planetarium, and without your authority?” Fancy scowled.

“I know exactly whose behind this, and I will express my displeasure with her thoroughly,” his sister needed a firm reminder that destroying the property of her own daughter was not going to get her to stop. That Bow Hothoof was giving her the wrong ways of dealing with Lyra and he was going to make sure that stallion was never going to come near their house again, Royal Guard or not.

But first, he gestured for them to follow and walked around to the back where a section of the wall was a bit paler than the others. Pressing his hooves in the correct sequence, he walked in, waiting for them to come in as well and pressing a button that closed the section up again.

There was a gasp before a pink form darted across the room, disappearing into a room and slamming the door shut.

“Was that Pinkie Pie?” Mrs. Shy asked, looking worried, “I do hope those stallions weren’t thinking of wrecking the place when she’s still in,” she walked over to the door and knocked on it, “Pinkie? It’s Mrs. Shy, it’s fine, the demolition ponies are gone,” it was silent for a moment before the door opened and a blue eyes peeked out.

“They’re not going to tear this place down?” she asked anxiously, Fancy shook his head.

“No, I own this place and have no intentions of destroying it,” her eye narrowed.

“Or taking any scrolls out and burning them?” Mr. Shy frowned.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie opened the door further, stepping out and giving them a serious look.

“Windy’s dad came in her with Lyra’s mom, took a whole shelf of her research and burnt it, just like her uncle did in Cloudsdale because its not pegasus related,” she bit her lip, “Your not going to do anything to Lyra’s human research right? Because I’ve seen it and don’t doubt it,” Zephyr almost scoffed but his mom’s quelling look stopped it.

“I see,” Fancy rubbed his head, “Oh Harper what am I going to do with you,” then he lowered the hoof and bent down to look Pinkie in the eye, “Is it alright if I at least take a look at the research? I promise not to destroy it,” she stared at him, a mysterious look in those big blue eyes.

“Pinkie Promise?” a shiver hit his spine but he nodded, bemusedly copying the movements, the other three doing the same when she looked at them.

“Okie dokie lokie,” she lit up and hopped to an unfamiliar room, opening the door and leading them into a room filled with scrolls, “We had to rearrange everything when Fluttershy and I came, the first shelf is party books, the second shelf is animals, third is magic, and fourth is all about humans and other creatures,” one half of the shelves were filled with books on the subjects she pointed out, but the rest looked like bound journals, “Windy did the journals, they’re the research she put together,” something about that caught his attention and he took one of the journals from the magic shelf, opening it to see the contents.

“She did all the journals?” Mrs. Shy gaped at the shelf, “I mean, I know she likes taking notes, she summarized her and Fluttershy’s books in one of their study sessions, but all of these subjects as well?” Pinkie shrugged.

“She likes research, she pointed me to books to help study party planning and even put together a list of all the different parties that ponies throw,” Zephyr went to the corner where there were scrolls piled up and took the one from the top.

“Ble-” Pinkie Pie tackled him to the ground, grabbed the scroll, and shoved it into her hair.

“No!” she pointed at him with a stern stare, “Those shelves,” while Mr. and Mrs. Shy looked shocked at seeing their son tackled to the ground and Zephyr himself was stunned, Fancy was still reading the journal.

“I say, this is remarkably similar to the study guides I’ve seen Lyra use when she’s working on her magical studies, and,” he flipped through the pages, using the table of contents (this filly was rather thorough) to find a spell and after glancing at it, put down the journal and cast the spell on a stuffed toy in the corner, its eyes glowing blue as it stood and started dancing, “My word, even the notes make sense,” he looked giddy, before seeing their expressions and clearing his throat, “Apologies, the Inanimate Animation spell always eluded me because the instructions never made any sense! But just reading the notes and I was able to cast it on the first try,” he picked the book back up and read even further, “If I had these kinds of primers in scho-” he trailed off, a lightbulb flashing that almost blinded them.

“Oopsie,” Pinkie hopped on top and turned it off, “Forgot to fix it,” Fancy gave the bulb a weary look before shaking his head and clearing his throat. 

“I-i don’t suppose your friend would mind if I published these books,” she climbed to his head and stared straight into his eyes, he smiled, “Then you won’t have to worry about them being destroyed and those who are having difficulty with their magic can learn from these notes.” she pursed her lips, “How about this, I pay for them to be published, and I will put all royalties in a safe for your group to use at your leisure,” she hopped off his head and to the floor, sitting down and staring at him with her hooves pressed firmly against the ground.

“Her family cannot know she’s the one who wrote them,” he let out a breath.

“Well a pen name will work then, I know you are unsure, but the magic guides they have now are too dry for students. How about you think on it for a bit while I’m still in Canterlot,” he had to go to a diplomatic meeting after the month was over, and he wasn’t really looking forward to it. Then, remembering himself, he turned to the Shy family, “How about attending the Canterlot Garden party tomorrow as my guests? I do feel bad about our lunch meeting being cancelled and wish you to experience some of what Canterlot has to offer,” they looked taken aback.

“Garden party?” Mrs. Shy’s eyes lit up while her husband looked a bit unsure, but seeing his wife’s enthusiasm he agreed.

Pinkie Pie rejected the invitation in favor of having something else to do, while Zephyr did not have much of a choice, though he did look interested in seeing the castle.

He took them to his house, not wanting them to put up bits for a hotel, and when he was sure they were comfortable, made his way to Harper’s house.

They were due for a very long talk. 

Pinkie Pie reinforced all the doors and windows before heading into the basement where she would spend the night, thinking about Fancy’s offer.

It sounded fun but should she wait to ask for Windy’s permission to publish her notes? She didn’t want the nine year old getting mad at her, but if they published all the books and they became popular, North wouldn’t have to worry about her dad or uncle destroying them.

At that thought she got up, staring at the wall as she shivered, today had been a very close call, and she was scared that next time it wouldn’t be a bribed demolition but an ‘accident’ that would end up destroying everything.

Which would sadden North and Lyra, and Fluttershy would be upset of course, but the place had been the former two’s home away from home and seeing it destroyed with all their work down the drain; they might not recover.

Besides, Fancy Pants could have decided to publish the books without her consent and not let her friend have any of the royalties; but instead he’s letting her think about it and give the decision. 

Oh, she wished part of the plan didn’t involve cutting off contact with one another, she wouldn’t be able to join them for another few months. Plus, if she waited those few months and the planetarium did get destroyed, Windy had a good memory, but with all the research she’s planning on doing, Pinkie had a feeling she wouldn’t remember what she did before. So, maybe it is a good idea to publish the journals?

Oh, why did this have to be hard?

Zephyr Breeze watched his shrinking parents in boredom and a bit of embarrassment. His mom thought the ‘garden’ part was literal and bought a straw hat and gardening implements. Not wishing to see his parents embarrass themselves (Fancy Pants had been dragged away by some other nobles) he went looking for the snacks table. Filling a plate, he then left the party to find a quiet spot to eat his food. He sighed and took out a book his sister had given him in the hopes of piquing his interest in the subject and while he could see why she thought so, did he really want to put all that effort in this kind of study area? The past year had been blow after blow as first his parents were treating him with a firmer hoof than before and they forced him to look at his behavior. 

How was he supposed to know cutting a filly’s hair and keeping it was creepy? The other colts dared him to and even after he did it they didn’t want to hang out with him. Fluttershy also got after him more and told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about North Wind or ‘spy’ on her if they request it. Whether that was because she overheard Rainbow Dash talking to him about it he wasn’t sure, though the filly gave up asking him halfway through when he asked what was in it for him.

“Ooh, is that a copy of Wing Chi?” the voice startled him from his thoughts and he turned, only to gulp at the sight of Princess Celestia standing there,

“U-uh it is, my sister gave me it, but I don’t understand it very well,” he wanted to hit himself at the admission, maybe he should leave before he embarrassed himself any further? But instead of insulting him, she gave him an encouraging smile.

“Well, it is something relaxing, if I had the time I would be doing it as well, to at least release the stress and all,” wait, what did that mean?

“Stress?”

“Yes, Wing Chi has you doing motions that involve graceful movements where you use your entire body, including your wings. There are Earth Pony and Unicorn versions as well, but I’m still waiting for the Alicorn version,” she winked at him and his cheeks turned red, to his mortification and he hastily looked down, causing her to giggle.

“But graceful isn’t something I’m good at, I’m more of a go with the flow kind of guy, and I don’t think I will be able to focus into all of those movements. Compared to my sister, I’m not very good with putting my effort into anything. This isn’t the only book she gave me either, but they all have the same kind of thing about helping ponies relax and that kind of thing,” what he did not know was that North had likened him to having the attitudes of those zen like guys if he could put in the effort and with the amount of care he puts into his mane, she figured he might as well learn about it properly.

“Well I don’t see anything wrong with that, we could use more ponies that can do that, and going with the flow? Sometimes that can lead to the most interesting situations and adventures, so long as you know when you should not go with the flow,” she looked and a small grimace appeared as some nobles came their way before she smiled, wiping the frown away, “Well, looks like I have to get back to work. It was nice speaking with you,” she left and he returned to his book, intent on finishing it now that the princess herself spoke of how useful it was when a sneering voice cut into his reading time.

“Think you’re a big shot now that Aunty Celestia spoke to you?” he turned to see an older colt who was giving him a mean look.

“U-uh,” who was this colt?

“Why are you even here? It is obvious you have no nobility about you, maybe I should call a guard and tell them you are trying to steal something,” he stiffened and felt burning anger well up as he stood up, fur standing on end as he opened his mouth to lash into the obnoxious unicorn when Fancy Pants appeared.

“There you are Zephyr, your parents got worried, would look rather bad if I lost my invited guests in the castle,” he turned to the unicorn colt who looked as if he had bit into something sour, “Prince Blueblood, I do hope you are treating the guests properly, I would hate to tell your aunt that you’ve been spouting unicorn superiority again and trying to make trouble for your own amusement,” Blueblood paled, gave Zephyr a glare as if it was his fault and pranced off. Fancy Pants gave a sigh as he led the green Pegasus colt back to the garden party.

“I do apologize for his behavior, colts like him feel like they hold the world around their hooves and expect everything to be given to them on a silver platter. I feel bad for Princess Celestia who must cater to his family, they are descended from Princess Platinum you know, the whole ‘aunty’ business only relates to the fact he’s descended from royalty and she is royalty. Now, I asked the kitchens to prepare some special treats that I know a growing colt like you will enjoy,” as they were led off, Zephyr thought over the words, colts who feel entitled to stuff right? He compared his behavior with Bluebloods and while he wouldn’t deliberately make trouble for someone, he had a feeling the ponies see his actions as such. Cheeks burning, he lowered his head, staring at the floor, no wonder everyone thought him an idiot, he wouldn’t want to be friends with Blueblood either, but then again, no one wanted to be his friend in school.

He was silent the rest of the Garden Party which his parents noticed and after begging off invitations (ponies wanting to get in with ponies who were acquainted with Fancy Pants, they weren’t comfortable with ponies like that.) led him to a donut shop to talk with him.

“Am I a bad colt?” he asked when they had sat down and the two shared a startled glance,

“What makes you say that?” his father asked and he sighed,

“I ran into Prince Blueblood and his behavior rubbed me the wrong way, and Fancy Pants said something about him being one of those colts that feels everything has to be handed to them on a silver platter. Then I remembered that I pretty much acted the same, and you probably wish I was more like Fluttershy instead of a demanding son,” tears trickled down his cheeks and his mom took him into her hooves.

“You are still a colt, at this young age you are expected to act like that, you should have seen your own father when he was younger, or even his brother,” Mr. Shy rolled his eyes which were surprising, “Your uncle for years couldn’t find something he truly enjoyed doing, and he expected your grandparents to put up with him every time he failed, it got to the point he stopped trying altogether. But then your grandfather broke his wings on a route and your uncle after much prodding, delivered letters and packages, and he realized that he did enjoy doing that kind of thing, especially the traveling part. He never realized his Cutie Mark’s usefulness till that moment. So yes, I admit that your father and I would not mind looking after you for a long while in the future, we know that there are times when parents must be strict with their children. Luckily that won’t happen for a long while yet, so you do not have to worry about that kind of thing, unless it is improving your grades in school. Oh! Did you want to attend flight camp? I forgot in all the excitement these past few days, registration is at the end of the month, we still have time too,”

“No,” they looked at him surprised and he blushed, raising a hoof, “I don’t mean that in a bratty way, but I’ve heard from Fluttershy that Flight Camp isn’t all that great. Actually, I was wondering if you can send me to a different camp, it involves the use of wings, just a different kind,” he had seen the flyer at the end of the book and while he wasn’t sure if the practice was something he would enjoy, it would not hurt to at least try.

His parents took the pamphlet and looked at it, their eyebrows raising at the kind of camp it was then back at a nervous Zephyr Breeze who was sipping at his Boba Tea, focusing all of his attention on it.

“I don’t see why not, it sounds like a delightful place, and they even hold gardening courses, I have never heard of this style before,” his mother looked interested, his father had a smile on his face.

“Well, I guess we better get you signed up, if that is what you want,” he hastened to add, Zephyr’s face broke into a grin.

“Yes!” maybe, he could get his Cutie Mark as well, he wondered what Fluttershy was doing and winced, he better write her an apology letter for being such a bratty brother, and maybe apologize to North Wind, if he even knew where she was (her running away was a big thing, and even he knew the whole Rock Camp thing was a farce to avoid being found out.)

Meanwhile Fancy Pants approached a publisher, a saddlebag filled with different scrolls and journals.

“Can I help you?” the bored secretary asked, not even phased at his presence, having dealt with many a noble who wished to spread their ‘brilliance’ in the world of literature.

“Yes, I would like to start an entirely new magazine, with different articles on magic and other subjects,” Written Records gave him an incredulous look, books were one thing, but a magazine?

“What is the name of the magazine?” there is no way it’ll become popular, but he was willing to humor them.

“North Star,” Fancy Pants answered, a secretive smile on his face.

“Alright, fill out these forms please,” he accepted the papers and started filling them out. He wanted to turn them into a book series, but after a talk with Pinkie, decided a magazine would work better.

“Ah, is it alright if we do separate accounts?” He wanted to do one for the fillies and a separate one to help pay off the amount it took to publish them.

“Depends on how popular it gets,” he said, but his tone said he did not believe that it would.


End file.
